ESO

European Organisation
for Astronomical
Research in the
Southern Hemisphere

Annual Report 2017

ESO

European Organisation
for Astronomical
Research in the
Southern Hemisphere

Annual Report 2017

Presented to the Council

by the Director General
Xavier Barcons
The European Southern Observatory

ESO, the European Southern Observa­

ESO/Gregory Lambert
tory, is the foremost intergovernmental
astronomy organisation in Europe. It
has 15 Member States: Austria, Belgium,
the Czech Republic, Denmark, France,
Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands,
Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden,
­Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Several other countries have expressed
an interest in membership.

Created in 1962, ESO carries out an

ambitious programme focused on the
design, construction and operation
of powerful ground-based observing
facilities enabling astronomers to make
important ­scientific discoveries. ESO
also plays a leading role in promoting
and organising cooperation in astro­
nomical research.

ESO operates three world-class observ-

ing sites in the Atacama Desert region
of Chile: La Silla, ­Paranal and ­Chajnantor.
La Silla, located 2400 metres above sea
level and 600 kilometres north of Santiago
de Chile, was ESO’s first site. It is
equipped with several optical telescopes
with mirror diameters of up to 3.6 metres.
The 3.58-metre New Technology Tele-
scope (NTT) broke new ground in the
1980s and was the first in the world
to have a computer-controlled main mir-
ror, a technology developed at ESO and
now applied to most of the world’s cur-
rent large telescopes. La Silla remains
at the forefront of astronomy, and is the
second most scientifically productive
array of four, each with a main m ­ irror
8.2 metres in diameter. With one such
telescope, images of celestial objects
as faint as magnitude 30 have been
obtained in a one-hour exposure. This
corresponds to seeing objects that are
four billion times fainter than those seen
with the naked eye.
One of the most exciting features of the
VLT is the option to use it as a giant opti-
cal interferometer (the VLT Interferometer
Four lasers being used to correct for atmospheric
distortion at the VLT in Paranal.
or VLTI). This is done by combining the
light from two or more of the 8.2-metre
Unit Telescopes (UTs) or two or more
of the four 1.8-metre movable Auxiliary
­Telescopes (ATs). In this interferometric
mode, the t­elescope’s vision is as sharp
ESO’s La Silla site hosts a large number of tele-
scopes, which are shown here.
ESO/A. Tudorică

observatory in ground-based astronomy

(after Paranal).
­­ The P
­ aranal site is located
2600 metres above sea level and is home
to the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the
Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for
Astronomy (VISTA), the world’s largest
survey telescope, and the VLT Survey
Telescope (VST), the largest telescope
designed exclusively to survey the skies
in visible light. ­Paranal is situated about
130 kilometres south of Antofagasta
in Chile, 12 kilometres inland from the
­Pacific coast in one of the driest areas in
the world. Scientific operations began in
1999 and have resulted in many extreme-
ly ­successful research programmes.

The VLT is a unique facility and arguably

the world’s most advanced optical instru-
ment. It is not just one telescope, but an

2 ESO Annual Report 2017


Y. Beletsky/ESO
ALMA antennas observing the sky at millimetre and
submillimetre wavelengths.
as that of a tele­scope the size of the sep-
aration between the most distant m ­ irrors.
For the VLTI, this is up to 200 metres.
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submil­
limeter Array (ALMA), the largest ground-
based astronomy project in existence, is
a revolutionary facility for world astronomy.
ALMA comprises an array of 66 antennas
of 12 and 7 metres in diameter observing
at millimetre and submillimetre wave-
lengths. It is located on the high-­altitude
­Chajnantor plateau, 5000 metres above
sea level — one of the highest astronomi-
cal observatories in the world. The ALMA
project is a partnership between ESO,
East Asia and North America, in coopera-
tion with the Republic of Chile.
The C­ hajnantor site is also home to the
Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX),
a 12-metre diameter millimetre and sub-
millimetre telescope, operated by ESO
on behalf of the Max Planck Institute for
Radio Astronomy, the Onsala Space
Observatory and ESO itself.
Each year, about 1800 proposals are
submitted for the use of ESO telescopes,
requesting between three and six times
as many nights as are available. In addi-
tion, astronomers from the regions repre-
sented by ESO submit around 750 pro-
posals to ALMA every year. ESO is the
most productive ground-based observa-
tory in the world, whose operation yields
many peer-reviewed publications: in 2017
alone 1085 refereed papers based on
ESO data were published.
The next step beyond the VLT is the con-
struction of the Extremely Large Telescope
(ELT) with a primary mirror 39 metres in
diameter. ESO’s ELT will be “the world’s
biggest eye on the sky” — the largest
optical/near-infrared telescope in the
world. On completion, it will address many
of the most pressing unsolved questions
in astronomy and may, eventually, revo­
lutionise our perception of the Universe,
much as Galileo’s telescope did 400 years
ago. Construction is ongoing at Cerro
Armazones near Paranal, and most major
contracts have been signed. The start of
ELT operations is expected in 2026.
The ESO Headquarters are located in
­Garching, near Munich, Germany. This is
the scientific, technical and administrative
centre of ESO where technical develop-
ment programmes are carried out to
­provide the observatories with the most
­ad­­vanced instruments. ESO’s offices in
Chile are located in Vitacura, Santiago.
They host the local administration and
support groups, and are home to ESO/
Chile astronomers when they are not at
the observatories. This site also contains
the ALMA Santiago Central Office. ESO
Vitacura is an active node for training
new generations of researchers, acting
as a bridge between scientists in Europe
and Chile.
The total regular Member State contribu-
tions to ESO in 2017 were approximately
165 million euros and ESO employs
around 695 staff.
Artist’s rendering of the ELT in operation.
ESO/L. Calçada
ESO Annual Report 2017 3
Contents

Foreword by the President of Council  6

Introduction by the Director General 7
Science 10
Research Highlights 11
Offices for Science 20
Allocation of Telescope Time 24
Publication Digest 27
Education and Outreach 31
Operations 38
La Silla ­­Paranal Observatory 39
Data Management and Operations 48
ALMA 53
Programmes 60
Instrumentation for the La Silla Paranal
­­ Observatory 61
Technology Development 67
The Extremely Large Telescope 70
Engineering 76
Administration 86
Finance and Budget 88
Human Resources 92
Organigram 96
Office of the Director General 98
Organisational Matters 106
Council 107
Finance Committee 108
Scientific Technical Committee 109
Observing Programmes Committee 111
Users Committee 113
International Staff Association 114
Local Staff Representatives 115
Diversity 116
Calendar of Events 118
Glossary of Acronyms 122
Foreword by the President of Council 
The Annual Report always provides an
occasion to reflect on the past year.
As I began to collect my thoughts, I was
quickly overwhelmed by the growing list
of important items that should be men-
tioned. A year at ESO is always incredibly
busy and 2017 was no exception.
Scientific and technical achievements in
key areas were numerous. The present
report highlights the incredible progress
achieved over essentially the entire spec-
trum of ESO programmes and activities.
Of course, this does not mean that there
are no challenges ahead, but rather that
ESO is in the best possible position to
overcome them. A few landmark decisions
by the ESO Council have led to major
changes in the Organisation and its pro-
grammes — additional elements that are
key to securing this position and prepar-
ing for the future.
During 2017, the ESO Council met four
times, twice at Headquarters in Garching
(June and December) and twice as the
Committee of Council in Prague (March)
and in Paris (October). The hospitality of
the respective delegations and ministries
was greatly appreciated and allowed for
constructive discussions that later enabled
key decisions.
In a milestone decision in December,
Council unanimously approved the first
spending on Phase 2 of ESO’s ELT, with
the purpose of completing the inner five
rings, the seventh sector of the primary
mirror and the second coating unit. This
bold decision removes lingering uncer-
tainties for the project as well as for the
instrument teams. Even more importantly,
the ELT project once again includes its
full-sized mirror and nominal capabilities
at first light, still planned for 2024. A
major milestone indeed.
Earlier during the summer, ESO entered
a ten-year strategic partnership with
­Australia. In a ceremony held at the Aus-
tralian National University in Canberra,
the Australian Minister for Industry, Inno-
vation, and Science, Arthur Sinodinos
and the ESO Director General, Tim de
Zeeuw signed the arrangement. At a time
when all second-generation Very Large
Telescope (VLT) and VLT Interferometer
(VLTI) instruments have been delivered to
6 ESO Annual Report 2017
Paranal, this partnership provides new Director General by Council, and started
opportunities to bring together expertise in his role on 1 September 2017. As a not-
within the ESO and Australian communi- so-distant former President of the ESO
ties to further exploit and expand the Council, Xavier Barcons has stepped into
world-class instrumentation available at his new shoes with amazing ease and
ESO. As most of the attention necessarily has taken rapid ownership of the Organi-
turns towards the construction of ESO’s sation. Council is looking forward to
ELT, this bodes well for astronomers working constructively with him, with the
for whom the VLT, the VLTI, the survey ESO management and with all the staff
­telescopes (VISTA and the VST), and the in Europe and Chile in the years to come.
La Silla telescopes (the ESO 3.6-metre
and the NTT), together with ALMA, will Finally, I would like to express my deep
serve as the workhorse facilities for the thanks and gratitude to Patrick Roche
years to come. who finished his term as President of
Council in 2017. Over the last three years,
In April 2017, ESO handed over the new his dedication, expert leadership, and
Residencia at the ALMA Operation patience have not only allowed Council
­Support Facility. This was the last major to come to essential decisions despite a
construction item to be delivered under tight financial environment and challeng-
ESO’s contributions to the successful ing situations, but have also served ESO
ALMA project. Home to the staff and to well on the global astronomical scene.
people working temporarily at the site, Thank you very much Pat!
the Residencia provides a very welcome
change from the previously available
­temporary facilities, helping to ease daily
life in the harsh environment of Northern
Chile.
On 31 August, Council and the Organisa- Willy Benz
tion said farewell to Tim de Zeeuw, Direc- President of Council
tor General of ESO for the last decade.
The extraordinary changes and achieve-
ments delivered by the Organisation
under Tim’s leadership were highlighted
by several distinguished speakers during
an outstanding special conference held
at ESO Headquarters in Garching at the
end of August. Reminiscing over the past
decade really brought home how mature
ESO has become and how confidently
it can assume its role as a world-leading
astronomical institution.
While the Director General plays a central
role, the management, the staff, and
the members of Council and committees
deserve equal recognition, for without
them there would be no Organisation.
I would like to express Council’s deep
gratitude for their work and dedi­cation,
including to all who left the Organisation
during 2017 and to the family and friends
of those who passed away. Together,
you have contributed in no small measure
to making ESO what it is today.
Tim de Zeeuw’s successor, Xavier
­Barcons, was appointed as the new
Introduction by the Director General
2017 marked a year full of achievements
for ESO, building on its 55 years of history.
A very clear marker of this success is in
the more than 1000 scientific papers that
were published during 2017 using data
obtained from the many ESO facilities.
This is a cause for celebration with the
scientific community, with the partnerships
through which our instruments are devel-
oped, with industry, and with the govern-
ments of our Member States and the host
country, Chile. All of these new science
results are interesting and a few of them
even made headlines in the media. Three
prominent examples include the discovery
of potentially habitable Earth-like planets
around the star TRAPPIST-1, the identifi-
cation of the gravitational wave event
GW170817 produced by the coalescence
of two neutron stars, and the characteri-
sation of the interstellar visitor to our
Solar System, ‘Oumuamua. These exam-
ples underline two increasingly important
factors when it comes to making trans-
formational discoveries in astronomy:
worldwide scientific collaborations and
the use of multiple facilities.
Support from ESO’s 15 Member States
and the Republic of Chile was at full
strength over the course of the year. In
July, they were joined by Australia as a
partner in ESO’s La Silla Paranal Obser-
vatory programme for the next 10 years.
In October, Ireland announced its intention
to join ESO and negotiations are under-
way. ESO’s standing in the European
Research Area has continued through
excellent links with other EIROForum
organisations and the European Commis-
sion, among other stakeholders.
In full compliance with its mission, ESO
has made good progress with the con-
struction and operation of its world-
class facilities. The lively and highly pro-
ductive La Silla site continues to attract
and host new telescope projects from
many partners and continues the efficient
operation of two facility telescopes, the
planet-hunting ESO 3.6-metre telescope
and the 3.58-metre NTT, which is pri­
marily used for follow-up observations
of transient events. At Paranal, the VLT,
the VLTI and the survey telescopes, VST
and VISTA, have maintained their highly
efficient and reliable operation, enabling
ESO to keep its position at the forefront
of optical ground-based astronomy
around the world. A major milestone was
ESO/M. Zamani
achieved in December, when Paranal
was fully connected to the Chilean power
grid, enhancing ESO’s environmental pro-
tection policy.
The conversion of the Unit Telescope 4
(UT4) of the VLT into a fully adaptive
optics telescope, a precursor of the ELT,
made big advances and the Laser Guide
Star Facility (LGSF) is now in regular use.
The Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exo-
planet and Stable Spectroscopic Obser-
vations (ESPRESSO), the ultra-­stable
spectrometer capable of adding the light
from the four VLT Unit Telescopes, saw
first light in November. The VLTI instru-
ment Multi-Aperture mid-Infrared Spec-
troScopic Experiment (MATISSE) was
shipped to Chile in October, on track
for first light in early 2018. The adaptive
optics assisted, two-object, multiple
beam-combiner GRAVITY, also on the
VLTI, began its commissioning, along
with a time-­critical campaign to observe
the Galactic Centre. The APEX project
was extended for a period of five years, Michelle Bachelet, the Armazones site
and, after a telescope overhaul, it will was handed over to the ELT Dome and
resume science operations during the Main Structure contractor. Preparations
first half of 2018. are well advanced and construction work
at the site began in early 2018. Most of
ESO delivered the ALMA Residencia, the contracts for optomechanics are also
which houses its personnel at the site, running, as well as those for many other
resulting in a substantial improvement components. First-light instruments are
in the living conditions. ESO also com­ beginning to pass their Preliminary
pleted the delivery of the Band 5 receiv- Design Reviews (PDRs). In December, in
ers for ALMA, in a joint effort with Euro- a visionary decision, Council authorised
pean institutes and our international the construction of the full ELT 39-metre
ALMA partners. European astronomers diameter primary mirror.
led almost half of the scientific publica-
tions resulting from ALMA observations The impressive milestones achieved by
showing the very strong impact of this ESO in its various programmes were the
facility on European astronomy. The result of the hard work and continued
unique milli­metre/submillimetre facility commitment of our talented personnel.
that is ALMA progressed towards steady- There are so many activities happening
state operations in 2017. Unusually behind the scenes, in our laboratories,
extreme weather conditions prevented infrastructures, workshops, offices, meet-
the completion of some observations, ing rooms, review boards, and even in
but the science produced by the ALMA discussions during coffee breaks, that it
observatory was truly breathtaking. would be impossible to list them all. We
do see the outcome of this massive
ESO’s most challenging project ever, effort in, for example, new instruments
the ELT, shot through several new mile- at Paranal, new discoveries with ALMA,
stones. Contracts amounting to about the first batch of ELT segments being
90% of the value of the construction cast, and the low technical downtime at
have already been authorised by the the La Silla Paranal Observatory (LPO).
Finance Committee and placed. After Collaborative work, only small parts of
the ELT First Stone ceremony on 26 May, which are visible from the outside, is
in the presence of the President of Chile, behind all of ESO’s successes.
ESO Annual Report 2017 7
ESO is facing perhaps its most significant
challenge with the construction of the
ELT, while keeping the LPO and ALMA at
the forefront of astronomy worldwide.
Fostering cooperation in astronomy is also
part of ESO’s mission, through science
and outreach activities, training of stu-
dents and fellows, and also by actively
working towards hosting and operating
the southern part of the Cherenkov Tele-
scope Array (CTA) at P ­ aranal.

I am fully convinced that ESO will succeed

in meeting this decade-long challenge
that began a few years ago on the basis
of two pillars. The first, the support of
our Member States and partners, whose
importance we acknowledge by ensuring
that their delegations are fully and trans-
parently appraised of ESO’s activities.
The second, the engagement and enthu-
siasm of our ESO staff, which we need
to maintain by implementing measures
that help to preserve work-life balance.
Securing both of these pillars is the best
— and possibly the only — recipe for
achieving success.

Most of the achievements reported here

were directly or indirectly brought about
by my predecessor Tim de Zeeuw,
who served as ESO Director General for
10 years. His vision and dedication truly
took ESO to new heights and I want
to thank him for this as well as for a very
smooth handover.

Xavier Barcons
ESO Director General

A collage bringing together all of ESO’s facilities into

a single imaginary landscape.

8 ESO Annual Report 2017

 ESO/M. Kornmesser

ESO Annual Report 2017 9

Science

10 ESO Annual Report 2017

 Research Highlights
The Directorate for Science (DSC)
maintains a close relationship with
members of the scientific community
in the ESO Member States to ensure
that ESO can best serve their needs.
The DSC contains ESO’s Project Sci-
entists, its ALMA, VLT, VLTI and ELT
Programme Scientists, the Observing
Programmes Office (OPO) team, who
organise the allocation of time on
ESO’s telescopes, the education and
Public Outreach Department (ePOD),
whose staff communicate the excite-
ment of ESO’s astronomy to the pub-
lic, and of course, ESO’s wonderfully
talented fellows and students.
Most astronomers at ESO in fact fall
under the Directorate of Operations,
with some others distributed across
the other directorates. The Office for
Science in the directorate, which
includes the forward-looking librarians,
exists to provide a healthy, vibrant
environment in which all of ESO’s sci-
entists, as well as the many distin-
guished s­ cientific visitors from the local
campus and beyond, can flourish.
In 2017, the DSC experienced a con-
siderably larger number of staff move-
ments than usual. Gaitee Hussain left
OPO to join the Office of the Director
General; Jason Spyromilio re-joined
the ELT Programme as Telescope Sci-
entist; Richard Ellis moved to University
College London after two years as
Senior Visiting Scientist; Leonardo Testi
was promoted to Division Head of the
ESO ALMA Support Centre after a
decade as ALMA Programme Scientist;
and last but definitely not least, Pam
Bristow retired after 35 years of service
as Adminstrative Assistant. Heading
in the other direction, Antoine Mérand,
Dimitri Gadotti, Mariya Lyubenova,
ESO/K. Meech et al.
Glenn van de Ven, Nelma Silva and
Mylène André were all welcomed to
the DSC.
VLT image of the face-on spiral galaxy
­M essier 77 (NGC 1068).
There was some very exciting science
news in 2017, reporting unique and
unprecedented events. ESO facilities
contributed to these with some truly stun-
ning observations. The selected high-
lights outlined here demonstrate the con-
tinued success of ESO telescopes and
operations. Some observations relied on
the large instrument complement offered
by ESO’s facilities and the operational
ability of the observatories to adapt to
unexpected events and collect the best
possible data, sometimes at extremely
short notice. As well as progress in a
number of astrophysical fields, there were
some amazing discoveries in 2017: the
first detection of an interstellar traveller
passing through the Solar System; the
discovery of an electromagnetic counter-
part to a gravitational wave source; and
An interstellar visitor to the Solar System
For the first time, an object wandering
into the Solar System from afar has been
observed on its way around the Sun. It
was discovered in Hawaii during a wide-
field survey project called the Panoramic
Survey Telescope And Rapid Response
System (PanSTARRS) as it was moving
past the Earth after passing the Sun.
Measurements of its hyperbolic orbit
showed that this object was an interstellar
traveller passing through the Solar S ­ ystem.
This led the International Astronomical
Union (IAU) to introduce a new designa-
tion, “interstellar asteroids”, and the name
1I/2017 U1 for this object. The astrono-
a rich planetary system found around a
nearby star.
On the VLTI, the adaptive optics assisted,
two-object, multiple beam-combiner
GRAVITY is probing the Galactic Centre in
unprecedented detail. ALMA observations
of the environments of young solar-type
stars have yielded detections of molecules
that have also been found on comets in
the Solar System. Observations of lensed
submilimetre galaxies reveal the proper-
ties of gas in their environments. Stunning
ALMA images of evolved stars will enable
scientists to understand mass loss in
these objects. Finally, in 2017 ALMA
gained the capa­bility to observe the Sun,
which will enable physicists to study the
solar chromosphere and heating in the
outer layers of the solar atmosphere.
mers who discovered it refer to it by the
Hawaiian name ‘Oumuamua, which
means “scout” or “messenger”. Many
­telescopes followed this Solar ­System
intruder for as long as possible. VLT
observations contributed to establishing
its very peculiar light curve, which indi-
cated that the shape of 1I/2017 U1 was
elongated, apparently several times longer
than wide and appearing more like a slab.
Detailed imaging allowed the observers
to deduce that there was no extended
halo resulting from cometary activity like
outgassing. This implies that there are
no volatiles within 1I/2017 U1 — hence its
Image of `Oumuamua
based on observations
from multiple telescopes
including the VLT. The
asteroid is the point
source at the centre of
the blue circle and is
surrounded by trails of
faint stars (caused by
tracking the fast-moving
asteroid). An artist’s
impression of the object
is shown on p. 30.
ESO Annual Report 2017 11
 designation as an asteroid. The light
curve, with a period of about 7 hours and
20 minutes, shows that the object is
probably tumbling, i.e., rotating about its
shortest axis; this requires that it have
some tensile strength in order to maintain
its shape. Photometry with the FOcal
Reducer and low dispersion Spectro-
graph 2 (FORS2) and spectroscopy from
Discovery of an electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave source
Ripples in space due to gravitational
waves were detected for the first time in
2016 (earning the 2017 Nobel Prize in
Physics). However, the electromagnetic
counterpart could not be identified. This
changed on 17 August 2017, when an
optical transient object was found to be
co-located with a gravitational wave
event and a gamma-ray burst. For the
ESO/E. Pian et al./S. Smartt & ePESSTO
1.5
2.5
Flux
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10.5
0 0.5
12
the wideband ultraviolet-infrared spectro- Its colour is consistent with material that
graph X-shooter indicated that the object was originally organic-rich and which
was quite red, corresponding to D-type has undergone exposure to cosmic rays.
­asteroids or objects found in the outer A mantle treated in this manner could
Solar System. still be covered in organic ices, but data
from X-shooter indicated that there was
Such objects typically have very low no ice within the top 40 cm of the mantle
albedos (about 4%), and the observations of 1I/2017 U1.
indicate an extension of about 400 m.
first time, the information from gravitational Detailed observations across the electro-
waves (essentially describing the merging magnetic spectrum of the gravitational
event) and from the electromagnetic wave event GW170817 confirmed several
spectrum (describing the aftermath of the of the predictions. A coincident gamma-
merger) could be combined to obtain a ray burst source (called GRB 170817A)
fuller picture of one such event. was found by the NASA/Fermi and ESA/
INTEGRAL satellites within two seconds
The existence of binary systems com- of the gravitational wave event. The opti-
posed of two neutron stars has been cal counterpart to GW170817 was called
known for some time from their radio AT2017gfo and was discovered in the
emission. Theorists had hypothesised ­galaxy NGC 4993 within 11 hours of the
that the merger of two neutron stars detection by the Laser Interferometer
caused by the loss of angular momentum Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)
through emission of gravitational waves and the Virgo collaboration.
would produce short gamma-ray bursts
and could be responsible for the forma- ESO observations contributed to the
tion of elements beyond the iron group o­ptical and near-infrared picture of
in the periodic table. GW170817. In particular, the X-shooter
Left: Montage of
X-shooter spectra show- Tanvir et al.
ing the evolution of the Ks
kilonova associated with
the gravitational wave J
source GW170817 over Y
a period of 10.5 days
r
after the gravitational
wave was detected.
Apparent magnitude
Each spectrum covers
a range of wavelengths
from the near-ultraviolet
to the near-infrared and
reveals how the object
became dramatically
redder as it faded.
Right: Lightcurves
showing the different
behaviour of the kilo­
nova associated with
GW170817 at optical
(0.66 μm) and infrared
(2.15 μm) wavelengths;
showing how it changed
1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 colour from blue to red 0 5 10 15 20 25
Wavelength (µm) over four weeks. Days after LIGO trigger
ESO Annual Report 2017
spectral series and the optical/infrared
light curves sampled the event in unprec-
edented detail. Even though the electro-
magnetic emission could be observed
for less than two weeks at ­optical wave-
lengths, a detailed record could be
­collected. The kilonova, as the electro-
magnetic counterpart is called, could be
observed for longer in the near-­infrared
as the material cools very quickly in the
rapidly expanding explosion. VISTA
was able to follow the infrared light curve
for nearly four weeks after the event.
The ESO observations provide strong
­evidence that heavy elements were pro-
duced in this merger. An outstanding
major puzzle in astrophysics concerns
the synthesis of elements heavier than
iron. Their nuclei typically have many
more neutrons than protons and so they
must form in a neutron-rich environment.
Since free neutrons are unstable and
decay with a half-life of about 15 minutes
there are not many “natural” places where
the nucleosynthesis of heavy nuclei can
proceed. During the merger of two neutron
stars, many neutrons are released and
the formation of heavy elements may pro-
ceed rapidly. The spectra of GW170817
are in broad agreement with the predic-
tions of simulations of the merger of two
neutron stars and have been taken as
proof that most heavy elements are
formed in such mergers. This is a very
important result as it has a direct bearing
on how life can evolve in certain parts of
our Universe.

Progress on exoplanet exploration

Following the discovery of a planet orbit- Left: HAWK-I observations of the ­transit

ESO/M. Gillon et al.

ing the nearest star to the Sun in 2016,
the exoplanet community added many
more interesting systems to the steadily
growing list of planets around other stars.
A major addition was the planetary sys-
Relative brightness
of three planets in front of their host star.
11 December 2015
As the system is so closely packed, this
1.00 light curve shows over­lapping t­ ransits
caused by the almost simultaneous pas-
sage of three planets in front of the stellar
disc. The different absorption depths and

durations indicate the sizes and orbital

tem around a low-mass star (about 8% 0.99 velocities of the individual planets.
of the mass of the Sun and at the dis-
tance of some 35 light-years or 10.7 par-
secs) with seven planets. The system,
known as TRAPPIST-1, was discovered 0.98
by the TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesI- 1f
mals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) of the 1e 1c
University of Liège, which is hosted on
La Silla. The masses of the planets range 0.97
from about a third of an Earth mass to Below: Artist’s impression of the p
­ lanets
00:58 01:26 01:55 02:24 02:53 around TRAPPIST-1, all of which are
1.5 Earth masses and they have orbital Time approximately Earth-sized.
periods ranging from 1.5 to nearly 19 days.
Several of the planets are at distances
ESO/M. Kornmesser

from the star that would allow water to

exist in the three aggregate states (ice,
water and vapour) simultaneously. This is
thought to be a critical condition for the
emergence of life.

The planets are also distributed in a reso-

nant chain, which means that their orbital
ratios are integer numbers (for example,
Pluto and Neptune are in a 2:3 mean
motion resonance). This is interpreted as
a signature of the dynamic evolution of
the planetary system and in particular the
inward migration of the planets.

TRAPPIST-1 has been observed by many

telescopes including using the High
­Acuity Wide field K-band Imager (HAWK-I)

ESO Annual Report 2017 13

on the VLT. Space telescopes provide the
long time series data required to obtain
orbital information on the most distant
planets. By combining all the available
information it has been possible to
deduce that two of the planets likely
have rocky interiors and the other five
Zooming in on the Galactic Centre and its supermassive black hole
Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at
the centre of our Galaxy, and its surround-
ings have long been a focus of study for
ESO’s telescopes. This region is called
the Galactic Centre, and is a complex
and rich environment that experiences a
high rate of star formation, and in which
Δ Declination (arcseconds)
the gravitational field of Sgr A* dominates
the motions of the surrounding objects.
By studying the movements of the sur-
rounding stars, astronomers can trace
their orbits and estimate the mass of and
distance to Sgr A*. The stellar orbits have
been monitored for decades, driving the
development of near-infrared and optical
high-angular-resolution instruments,
using adaptive optics, at both the Keck
Observatory and ESO. In 2017, a 25-year
effort to follow the orbits of 47 stars using
the NTT, Keck, and the Nasmyth Adap-
tive Optics System (NAOS) and the near-
infrared imager and spectrograph CONICA
(together known as NACO) and the Spec-
trograph for INtegral Field Observations
in the Near Infrared (SINFONI) at the VLT,
led to a best estimate of the mass and
distance of Sgr A*: 4.3 ± 0.2 million solar
masses and 27 100 ± 500 light-years,
respectively (Gillessen et al., 2017).
These latest estimates of mass and
­distance are not, however, the end of the
story. As impressive as they are, the future
of Sgr A* studies is even more exciting.
The supermassive black hole creates such
a massive gravitational well that the stellar
orbits should be affected in accordance
with the predictions of General Relativity.
To date, no relativistic effects on stellar
orbits have been observed because
instruments have not had the requisite
sensitivity to detect the expected minute
deviations from Newtonian physics. But
14 ESO Annual Report 2017
require envelopes of volatiles in the form
of thick atmospheres, oceans or ice. In
most of these cases the water fraction is
below 5%.
Other nearby stars with planets that
probably have temperate surface tem­
0.175
0.15
0.125
0.1
0.075
0.05
0.025
0
0.05
Δ Right ascension (arcseconds)
measuring these effects would offer a
verification of General Relativity in a
strong gravity regime that has never
probed before.
This motivated the construction of the
VLTI instrument GRAVITY. By improving
the precision of the VLT’s adaptive optics,
GRAVITY will be able to detect General
Relativity effects affecting the closest
known star to Sgr A*, S2, as it experiences
its closest passage to the supermassive
black hole in 2018. GRAVITY was installed
and commissioned in 2015-2016 and
began observations of Sgr A* and S2 in
2017. Early results showed the expected
performance leap provided by optical
interferometry, combining the four Unit
Telescopes of the VLT (GRAVITY Collabo-
ration, 2017a & b). GRAVITY will also
peratures were also found in 2017. The
observations bode well for future pro-
jects, including a number of space-based
missions, which will discover many more
exoplanet transits and, quite likely, even-
tually a world that may look not too differ-
ent from Earth.
4000
3000
2000
vLSR (km s –1)
1000
0
–1000
–2000
0.025 0 –0.025 –0.05 –0.075 2000 2005 2010 2015
t (year)
Left: Orbit of the star S2 around the supermassive
black hole SgrA* as seen on the plane of the sky.
Blue data points are measurements from the NTT
and VLT, while the red data points are from Keck.
The Sgr A* flare positions are shown as grey crosses.
Right: The corresponding radial velocity of S2 as a
function of time (Gillessen et al., 2017).
search for additional stars that are fainter
and closer to Sgr A*, which would be
expected to display even stronger rela­
tivistic effects. This search has so far
been unfruitful, but the detection limit
improves as more data are accumulated
every month. Another aspect of Sgr A*
that GRAVITY is studying is the nearly
daily occurrence of hour-long light “flares”
that appear to come from the centre of
mass of Sgr A*. The nature of these bright-
ening events is unknown and GRAVITY
is contributing where it excels: angular
resolution.

Early observations with GRAVITY con-

firmed that the flares did indeed originate S2
GCIRS 7
a few Schwarzschild radii from the cen-
tral mass (GRAVITY Collaboration, 2017a
& b) indicating that the flares are very
closely associated with the central black GCIRS 16C
hole. Whatever the nature of the flares,
their proximity to the central black hole
makes them unique probes of extreme
gravity. 2017 has been one of the most
exciting years in terms of studies of Sgr A*,
but the years to come promise to be even
more interesting.

Predicted relativistic orbit

S2 Keplerian orbit

Δω = 12 arcminutes
2019
9 S2

The central 20 arcseconds of the Galactic Centre

observed using adaptive optics. Top left: The central
20 arcseconds in the Galactic Centre with the adap-
tive optics and fringe-tracking reference stars. Top SgrA* 2017
SgrA*
right: The central arcsecond as seen by NACO.
­B ottom left: The small shift (~12 arcminutes) between
the predicted Keplerian and relativistic orbits of S2.
Bottom right: First detection of Sgr A* by GRAVITY; 2018
50 milliarcseconds
the slight elongation is a projection effect and not
real (GRAVITY Collaboration, 2017b).

Observing the Sun with ALMA

ALMA is the first ESO observatory

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

designed to observe the Sun directly.

At millimetre wavelengths, ALMA is
­probing the solar chromosphere, the
heated layer above its photosphere. By
observing the Sun over a range of milli­
metre wavelengths, ALMA allows us to
probe different depths in the solar chro-
mosphere in an attempt to answer the
outstanding questions about the heating
of the solar chromosphere and the trans-
This image of the whole disc of the
fer of energy from the photosphere to Sun was taken with ALMA, using a
the higher layers of the solar atmosphere. technique called fast-scanning, at a
In 2017, the first regular observations of wavelength of 1.25 millimetres. It
the Sun started with ALMA and the first shows the distribution of temperatures
in the chromosphere over the whole
high-angular-resolution observations at disc at low spatial resolution, revealing
3 and 1.25 mm, probing different layers details about heating in the outer layers
of the chromosphere, were published. of the Sun.

ESO Annual Report 2017 15

Complex organic molecules

ALMA is the prime ESO observatory Spitzer Space Tele-

B. Saxton/NRAO/AUI/NSF/NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

scope infrared image of
studying the chemical pathways that
a young stellar cluster
may lead to the development of complex in the rho-Ophiuchi star-
organic molecules (and potentially forming region. The
­prebiotic molecules) in the interstellar images show an artist’s
representation of the
medium and in the environments where
complex organic mole-
planetary atmospheres are assembled. cules (freon-40 and
methyl isocyanate)
Important results in this area obtained potentially involved in
key life-related chemical
in 2017 included the detection of two
reactions detected with
key molecules in a young solar a ­ nalogue: ALMA.
methyl isocyanate (CH3NCO) and freon-40
(CH3Cl). CH3NCO is a principal building
block of biotic molecules as it is thought
to be involved in the formation of mole-
cules like peptides and amino acids. Its
detection supports the idea that the
­pathway to produce these prebiotic mole­
cules is widespread in ­planet-forming
environments. CH3Cl was thought to be
only rarely produced in the interstellar
medium. It is found to be abundant in
young forming planetary s­ ystems and
its detection on comet P67/Churyumov–
Gerasimenko in our own Solar System
suggest that its chemistry can be very
effective even outside planetary atmos-
pheres.

Turbulent gas reservoir in early Universe starbursts

ALMA’s spectroscopic sensitivity was key Artist’s impression

ESO/L. Benassi

showing how gas falling

to the detection and study of the molecu-
Cold streams, or tidal into distant starburst
lar gas associated with high-­redshift star- galaxies ends up in vast
streams from mergers
bursts. Observations of carbon hydride turbulent reservoirs of
(CH+) in lensed submillimetre galaxies cool gas extending
30 000 light-years from
revealed the physical conditions of gas in
Starburst core the central regions.
the environment of these distant star- ALMA has been used to
bursts. CH+ is a highly unstable molecule detect these turbulent
and is present in high abundance only reservoirs of cold gas
surrounding similar dis-
in regions within molecular clouds where Turbulent reservoir tant starburst galaxies.
turbulence is dissipated. The detection By detecting CH+ for the
of CH+ thus reveals the presence of large first time in the distant
reservoirs of cold turbulent gas around Universe, this research
opens up a new window
high-redshift star-forming galaxies. 30 000 light-years of exploration into a crit-
ical epoch of star forma-
The scenario emerging from these tion (Falgarone et al.,
­observations is one of violent starbursts 2017).
producing vast galaxy-sized winds that
transfer energy from the star-forming
events to the gas reservoir around the an expansion of the starburst activity. star formation activity on galactic scales,
galaxy. By driving turbulence in the cold These results suggest that feedback is but can actually help to extend the star
gas reservoir, these winds may trigger not only responsible for quenching the formation activity.

16 ESO Annual Report 2017

Mass loss from evolved stars

In the final stages of their evolution,

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/F. Kerschbaum

stars return a large fraction of their mass
to the interstellar medium in the form of
reprocessed matter. Heavy elements
produced inside the star during its life-
time are ejected from the stellar atmos-
phere in a series of mass-loss events.
Up to 70% of all the dust in the present-
day Galactic interstellar medium origi-
nates from evolved stars during the evo-
lutionary phase known as the asymptotic
giant branch.

Since the beginning of science opera-

tions, ALMA has established itself as the
prime instrument with which to study
mass ejection processes from evolved
stars. The sensitivity, angular resolution
and image fidelity provided by ALMA are
all key elements that allow the detailed
reconstruction of the three-dimensional
structure of the winds and periodic mass
ejections associated with thermal pulses
in evolved stars.

Recent observations of the star U Antliae

are a perfect demonstration of the revo­
lution that has begun in this field thanks
to ALMA. The mass ejection occurred
approximately 2700 years ago, around
the date of the foundation of Rome. The

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/F. Kerschbaum

ALMA high-resolution data reveal a fila-
mentary structure within a beautifully
symmetric spherical shell. This structure
may be caused by instabilities at the
interface between the high velocity mass
ejection event and the slower (and less
massive) pre-existing wind.

The evolved star U Antliae, as observed by ALMA.

Upper: CO integrated intensity map. Lower: colour-
coded image revealing the gas moving towards the
observer (blue) and away (red) from the star on the
plane of the sky.

ESO Annual Report 2017 17

References

The following papers were used as sources for

the research highlights.

Bastian, T. S. et al. 2017, ApJ, 845, L19

De Wit, J. et al. 2018, Nature Astronomy, 2, 214
Falgarone, E. et al. 2017, Nature, 548, 430
Fayolle, G. et al. 2017, Nature Astronomy, 1, 703
Fitzsimmons, A. et al. 2018, Nature Astronomy, 2, 133
Gillessen, S. et al. 2017, ApJ, 837, 30
Gillon, M. et al. 2017, Nature, 542, 456
GRAVITY Collaboration: Abuter, R. et al. 2017a, A&A,
602, A94
GRAVITY Collaboration: Abuter, R. et al. 2017b,
The Messenger, 170, 10
Grimm, S. et al. 2018, A&A, in press, arxiv:1802.01377
Kerschbaum, F. et al. 2017, A&A, 605, 116
Ligterink, N. F. W. et al. 2017, MNRAS, 469, 2219
Luger, R. et al. 2017, Nature Astronomy, 1, 129
Martín-Doménech, R. et al. 2017, MNRAS, 469, 2230
Meech, K. et al. 2017, Nature, 552, 378
Pian, E. et al. 2017, Nature, 551, 67
Smartt, S. et al. 2017, Nature, 551, 75
Tanvir, N. et al. 2017, ApJ, 848, 27

The La Silla Observatory at sunset.

18 ESO Annual Report 2017

 ESO/P. Horálek

ESO Annual Report 2017 19

Offices for Science
The main mission of the Offices for
­Science in Garching and Vitacura is to
establish a successful “scientific ecosys-
tem” at ESO by supporting individual
research programmes and maintaining a
stimulating scientific environment across
the organisation through a number of
activities, including the ESO studentship,
fellowship and visitor programmes.
Astronomers across the Organisation
make up the ESO Faculty and are deeply
engaged in the work of the offices —
indeed they run the vast majority of the
selection committees for the Offices for
Science programmes.
The Chair of the ESO Faculty also chairs
the Scientific Personnel Committee, argu-
ably one of the most important internal
committees as it evaluates the scientific
credentials of astronomers during hiring,
contract renewal, and ­promotion and
when evaluating indefinite contracts. Over
the last five years, the Director for Science,
the Offices for Science and the Faculty
Chair have been working together to fur-
ther empower the ESO Faculty and this
process will continue in 2018, with the
offices being reorganised to include the
participation of the Faculty Chair. These
changes are in line with the 2013-2014
Visiting Committee recommendations
to promote the Faculty’s role in ESO’s
programmes and day-to-day operations.
Faculty activities in 2017
In 2017, members of the Faculty partici-
pated in several working groups to assess
the status of ESO’s fellowship and stu-
dentship programmes, to reorganise the
flow of talks and colloquia on both sites
and to define a sabbatical ­programme
(called “Research Periods”) for the Faculty.
The fellowship and studentship working
groups found that these programmes are
successful and provided recommenda-
tions to further improve the selection pro-
cess. For studentships, the Faculty rec-
ommended establishing a second yearly
call to better align with external constraints
— a suggestion that was quickly imple-
mented. In addition, the selection com-
mittees for the studentship, fellowship
and visitor programmes consist solely of
Faculty members with minimal involve-
ment from the Heads of the Offices for
Science. The frequency of talks was also
20 ESO Annual Report 2017
readjusted based on recommendations
by the Faculty. Finally, a cost-neutral pilot
Research Period programme was estab-
lished, allowing one Faculty astronomer
on each site to take one year out to focus
entirely on their research and reinforce
their collaborations and connections with
the community. The first round of appli-
cations will be assessed in 2018.
Strengthening the fellowship programme
Over the last few years, ESO implemented
a way for fellows to formally supervise
students and to lead a variety of projects;
for example, fellows can bid for grants
from the Science Support Discretionary
Fund (previously called the Director
­General’s Discretionary Fund) and fellows
can also propose and lead ESO work-
shops. These changes keep the fellow-
ship programme competitive compared
to postdoctoral opportunities available
at ESO Member State research institutes
and universities and help fellows to gain
key skills in preparation for a successful
career as an astronomer.
Science highlights
As in previous years, we take the oppor-
tunity here to showcase the achievements
of a few ESO researchers, to further illus-
trate the abundance of talent among both
junior and senior staff members.
Dinko Milakoviċ is a second-year Inter-
national Max Planck Research School
on Astrophysics (IMPRS) student who
joined ESO in September 2016. Dinko
previously studied at the University of
Zagreb (Croatia) and was an intern at the
Uni­versity of New South Wales (UNSW)
in Australia. His PhD, conducted under
the supervision of Luca Pasquini and
John Webb (UNSW), concerns cosmolo-
gy and fundamental physics, aiming to
refine high-redshift measurements of the
value of the fine structure constant and
to test whether it varies with time and/or
spatial direction. This requires high-­
resolution quasar spectra with exquisite
wavelength calibration.
Dinko began his PhD with a trip to La Silla
to learn about the use of Laser Frequency
Combs (LFC), which will refine the accu-
racy of the wavelength calibration of
the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet
Searcher (HARPS) (and ESPRESSO)
instrument to a velocity of 1 m s – 1. In 2017,
Dinko joined the ELT students & f­ellows
working group, where he simulates
observations of quasar spectra from the
proposed ELT high-resolution spectro-
graph HIRES. Dinko is a student repre-
sentative and one of the co-organisers of
both the Journal Club and Beer Friday in
Garching. He has also acted as facilitator
twice d­ uring ESO’s peer review, during
which observing proposals are assessed,
and fielded questions during an “Ask an
Astronomer” event at the ESO Open
House. Dinko also chaired the local organ-
ising committee for the third IMPRS
­Student Symposium, and more recently
he played a key role in developing and
implementing a new concept for “Science
Day” at Garching in January 2018, the
purpose of which is to enable ESO
astronomers to interact and get to know
more about each other’s research.
Andra Stroe started as an ESO Fellow
in Garching in October 2015 after a PhD
at Leiden Observatory (the Netherlands).
Her research brings together multi-­
wavelength observations and modelling
to study the evolution of galaxies, gas
and active galactic nuclei (AGN) with cos-
mic time and environment, focussing on
the growth of galaxy clusters. Andra
leads a large international observational
effort aimed at understanding the trigger-
ing of star formation and AGN activity
during massive cluster mergers. The first
paper from this project was published in
2017. It was based on 35 nights of obser-
vations and presented the largest sample
obtained so far (> 3000) of uniformly
selected emission-line cluster g­ alaxies.
The data showed conclusively for the first
time that merging clusters have twice as
many star-forming galaxies on average
compared to their relaxed cluster counter-
parts. Andra has shared her results with
the community, giving 13 talks in 2017,
including eight invited talks and colloquia.
Andra chose to do her fellow duties in
Paranal and is involved in the operations
of UT1, where she serves as a night-time
astronomer for the FORS2 and NACO
instruments and the K-band Multi Object
Spectrograph (KMOS). Using her experi-
ence as a support scientist at Paranal

ESO/M. Zamani
Dinko Milakoviċ, Andra Stroe and Leonardo Testi
inside the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor
Centre.
and drawing on her collaborations, Andra
has six ongoing observing programmes.
These span almost the entire electro­
magnetic spectrum (including radio, sub-
millimetre, infrared, optical and the ultra-
violet), and use the VLT (with KMOS, the
Fibre Array Multi Element Spectrograph
[FLAMES] and X-shooter) as well as APEX.
In July 2017, Andra led the organisation
of the ESO workshop “Early stages of Gal-
axy Cluster Formation” with staff member
Tony Mroczkowski, which brought 110
experts together at ESO Headquarters.
Andra also served as a member of the
ESO Garching fellowship selection com-
mittee, founded the Galaxy Cluster dis-
cussion group and organises Wine and
Cheese seminars.
Leonardo Testi joined ESO in May 2007
as European ALMA Programme Scientist
and was promoted into the role of Head
of the ESO ALMA Support Centre (EASC)
in 2017. Leonardo started his career as
an infrared and radio astronomer. Even
though he shifted his focus to (sub-) milli-
metre astronomy, first as a postdoc at
Caltech and then through his work with
ALMA, he continues to use a variety of
state-of-the-art instruments and tech-
niques for his research including all of the
ESO observatories. His scientific interests
Yara Jaffé, Thomas ­Rivinius and James ­Leftley at
Vitacura.
include the interstellar medium, young
stellar clusters, star and planet formation
and brown dwarfs.
Leonardo is on leave from the Italian
National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF),
where he contributed to the development
of submillimetre astronomy, first as a
member of the INAF Science Council and
then as the coordinator of the iALMA initi-
ative, which provided funding for a broad
range of ALMA-related scientific and
technical research in Italy. Leonardo has
a passion for and commitment to out-
reach and working with students and fel-
lows, tutoring and mentoring the next
generation of astronomers. His substan-
tial contributions to the study of the
­properties of solids and volatiles in planet-
forming discs and of the Galactic inter-
stellar medium are made possible by
these highly talented young people.
Leonardo’s research on the statistical prop-
erties of discs has received support from
the Deutsche ­Forschungsgemeinschaft
(DFG) via the Excellence Cluster Origin
and Structure of the Universe, through
which he co-organised a Munich Institute
for Astro- and Particle Physics 2017
workshop. He also recently received sup-
port from a DFG network research grant
in collaboration with groups at universities
in Munich, Heidelberg and Tautenburg,
and at the Max Planck institutes for extra-
terrestrial physics and astronomy.
Thomas Rivinius joined ESO as a fellow
in Garching in 1999, opting to carry out
his functional duties at the Paranal obser-
vatory at UT2, and he re-joined ESO in
2005 as a faculty astronomer in Chile.
With a background in spectroscopy,
Thomas expressly sought a position at
the VLTI in order to expand his observa-
tional and technical skills and he became
the instrument scientist responsible for
the interferometric instruments the MID-
infrared Interferometric instrument (MIDI)
and the Precision Integrated-Optics Near-
infrared Imaging ExpeRiment (PIONIER).
Thomas is now involved in the commis-
sioning of MATISSE, and will be its instru-
ment scientist after it is handed over to
ESO.
ESO/F. Rodriguez
ESO Annual Report 2017 21
Thomas’s science concentrates on stars
that are more massive than the Sun. His
interests include binarity, massive stellar
winds over circumstellar discs, magnetic
fields and stellar pulsations. Be stars,
B-type stars with circumstellar gas discs,
are his main focus at present. This allows
him to fully exploit his skills, as many Be
stars are nearby and bright, making them
prime targets for both spectroscopy and
optical interferometry. Thomas brings his
observational expertise to collaborations
with theoretical astrophysicists in Brazil,
the USA and Canada, as well as with col-
leagues from ESO. He is actively involved
in the supervision and support of stu-
dents including those working directly
with him in Chile and those working with
his collaborators.
Yara Jaffé joined ESO Chile as a fellow
in late 2015. As the Multi Unit Spectro-
scopic Explorer (MUSE) Instrument Fellow,
Yara has played an important role in the
deployment of the Adaptive Optics Facility
(AOF) on Yepun (UT4). She has also con-
tributed to the Science Operations team
by leading instrument-related projects
and supervising a short-term student at
Paranal. In Santiago, Yara has been very
committed to science outreach. She co-
organised an “Astronomy for ­everyone”
event at Vitacura and participated in
many outreach and educational events in
Chile, including the Festival Internacional
de Innovación Social (FIIS 2017). Yara
also served on the fellowships and stu-
dentships selection committee in Chile.
Yara’s main scientific goal is to under-
stand the physical mechanisms trans-
forming galaxies in different cosmic
­environments. Her most recent work
focused on the role of ram-pressure
­stripping by the intracluster medium in
the quenching of galaxies. In particular,
she is a core team member of the ESO
Large Programme GAs Stripping Phe-
nomena in galaxies (GASP; Principal
­Investigator [PI] Poggianti), which aims
to understand gas-stripping phenomena
in galaxies using MUSE. On completion
the programme will have collected 3D
data for over 100 galaxies undergoing
gas stripping (called “jellyfish galaxies”
because of their spectacular tails).
Yara has worked on linking the “jellyfish”
­morphology and kinematics revealed
by MUSE GASP observations to ram-
22 ESO Annual Report 2017
pressure stripping in clusters. She also
played a key role in the discovery of a
previously unknown connection between
ram-pressure stripping and AGN activity
in cluster galaxies. Yara also co-super­
vises Callum Bellhouse, a PhD student
who spent two years at ESO working on
GASP data, and who recently returned
to the University of Birmingham to finish
his thesis.
James Leftley joined ESO in late 2016,
at the beginning of his PhD at the Univer-
sity of Southampton, to work with Konrad
Tristram and Daniel Asmus. His main goal
during his time at ESO is to use infrared
interferometry to directly observe the dust
distribution in the central tens of parsecs
of nearby AGN. During 2017 he used MIDI
to study dust on the scale of the obscur-
ing dust torus in a local Seyfert AGN.
Recently James was awarded time with
GRAVITY to further study the same AGN
in the near-infrared. In early 2017 he
was a visiting astronomer at the VLTI on
the Astronomical Multi-BEam combineR
(AMBER) from which he gained experi-
ence of observing faint objects with a
near-infrared interferometer. He plans to
use the insight gained to make the most
of GRAVITY in AGN science and measure
distances to a larger sample of local,
deriving the Hubble constant indepen-
dently of the cosmic distance ladder.
During his time at ESO James has taken
advantage of opportunities to gain expe-
rience in the use of virtual reality and
3D modelling in astronomy. He provided
input to a new virtual reality system for
ESO Vitacura, which will allow the visuali-
sation of large datasets that are being
produced by newer instruments, to the
benefit of both researchers and members
of the general public. James also joined
the Santiago AGN group, which organises
monthly meetings bringing together
researchers at ESO and universities in
Santiago working on related topics.
This image shows of one of the four 1.8-metre
­Auxiliary Telescopes of the VLTI at Cerro Paranal.
ESO Annual Report 2017
23
ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org)
Allocation of Telescope Time

The table shows the requested and

ESO, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/A. Schruba, VLA (NRAO)/Y. Bagetakos/Little THINGS

scheduled observational resources for
Periods 100 and 101 (October 2017– March
2018 and April – September 2018, respec-
tively) for the La Silla Paranal Observatory
and APEX. The length of each run is
specified in nights, the usual allocation
unit for the La Silla Paranal Observatory
and APEX.

The La Silla Paranal Observatory and

APEX statistics only include proposals
submitted for the two periods (P100 and
P101). Large Programme runs that were
approved in previous periods, Guaranteed
Time Observing (GTO) runs, and Public
Survey runs are not included. The pres-
sure is computed as the ratio between
the requested and the allocated time.
The last two columns present the total
telescope time allocations and the frac-
tions of time per instrument. Note that
the V
­ Isible Multi-Object Spectrograph
(VIMOS) was almost fully dedicated to
two Public Spectroscopic Surveys in
Periods 100 and 101. As only a very limit-
ed amount of time was allotted to open
time programmes, the pressure on
VIMOS was unusually high over this time.

The ALMA Proposal Review Committee

for the allocation of time in Early Science
Cycle 5 (covering October 2017– Sep­
tember 2018) met in Antwerp, Belgium
between 18 and 23 June 2017. The table
shows the requested and scheduled
resources for the ALMA Observatory in
Cycle 5 listed by ALMA frequency band,
for ESO and the world (including North
America, East Asia, ESO and the host
country Chile). The scheduling unit for
ALMA is an hour of array time.

Note that the total number of ALMA

­proposals is less than the sum of
the numbers above, as proposals can
request more than one band.

This is a composite made by combining archival

images of NGC 6822 from the Wide Field Imager
(WFI) at the La Silla Observatory and new ALMA
data. The ALMA observations reveal the detailed
structure of star-forming gas clouds.

24 ESO Annual Report 2017

Telescope Instrument Requested Scheduled Requested % Scheduled % Pressure Total %
runs runs time time allocation

UT1 NACO 75 35 70 11.8% 19 15.8% 3.7 55 24.8%

FORS2 345 101 376 63.9% 88 73.7% 4.3 109 49.3%
KMOS 74 10 143 24.2% 13 10.6% 11.3 57 26.0%
Total 494 146 588 119 4.9 221

UT2 FLAMES 88 17 145 15.5% 29 14.7% 5.0 49 21.2%

UVES 206 45 298 32.0% 46 23.0% 6.5 53 22.8%
X-SHOOTER 376 122 489 52.5% 124 62.3% 4.0 130 56.0%
Total 670 184 931 199 4.7 233

UT3 SPHERE 219 104 220 60.3% 55 59.8% 4.0 118 47.3%
VIMOS 21 13 33 9.0% 1 1.4% 25.1 85 34.2%
VISIR 94 45 112 30.7% 35 38.8% 3.2 46 18.5%
Total 334 162 364 91 4.0 248

UT4 SINFONI 146 22 177 26.5% 29 36.8% 6.0 48 32.8%

MUSE 369 41 419 62.6% 42 52.3% 10.0 87 59.5%
HAWK-I 86 17 72 10.8% 9 10.9% 8.3 11 7.8%
Total 601 80 669 80 8.4 147

VLTI AMBER 31 6 22 12.8% 6 8.6% 3.5 6 5.5%

PIONIER 75 32 48 27.9% 30 40.5% 1.6 33 28.3%
GRAVITY 165 77 103 59.3% 37 50.9% 2.8 77 66.2%
Total 271 115 173 74 2.4 116

3.6-metre HARPS 135 109 522 100.0% 265 100.0% 2.0 330 100.0%
Total 135 109 522 265 2.0 330

NTT EFOSC2 58 29 204 28.2% 94 46.9% 2.2 145 45.0%

SOFI 18 18 61 8.4% 55 27.3% 1.1 106 32.9%
Visitor Instrument 38 18 458 63.3% 52 25.8% 8.9 71 22.1%
Total 114 65 723 200 3.6 321

APEX ARTEMIS 2 1 4 3.2% 1 2.5% 3.0 3 5.8%

LABOCA 5 2 20 16.5% 4 8.2% 4.8 4 7.9%
PI230 7 4 14 11.7% 8 14.6% 1.9 8 14.1%
SEPIA 16 7 40 32.8% 14 27.2% 2.9 14 26.3%
SHFI 14 8 44 35.8% 25 47.6% 1.8 25 46.0%
Total 44 22 122 52 2.4 53

ALMA Band Req. proposals/band Sched. proposals/band (A+B) Requested hours Scheduled hours (A+B) Pressure (by hours)
All | ESO All | ESO All | ESO All | ESO All | ESO

3 506 | 213 127 | 41 4692 | 2073 1229 | 377 3.82 | 5.50

4 178 | 84 44 | 12 1276 | 619 275 | 73 4.64 | 8.46
5 113 | 62 33 | 14 674 | 395 142 | 59 4.75 | 6.70
6 764 | 303 212 | 70 6933 | 2673 1635 | 537 4.24 | 4.98
7 567 | 233 132 | 43 4230 | 1839 828 | 339 5.11 | 5.43
8 98 | 44 27 | 7 539 | 242 149 | 26 3.61 | 9.42
9 93 | 37 21 | 6 380 | 135 74 | 22 5.15 | 6.14
10 23 | 6 8|1 96 | 31 20 | 2 4.85 | 15.00
Total 1661 | 701 433 | 150 18820 | 8007 4351 | 1434 4.32 | 5.58

ESO Annual Report 2017 25

ESO/P. Horálek

A composite of over 50 images taken during the

partial lunar eclipse observed at the ESO Head-
quarters on 7 August 2017.

26 ESO Annual Report 2017

Publication Digest

The Telescope Bibliography (telbib), a ESO Publications 1996–2017

1200
database developed and curated by
the ESO Library, is used to evaluate the
Organisation’s productivity and impact
through the number of published papers 1000
based on ESO data and through their
citations. In 2017, for the first time in
ESO’s history, the number of refereed No. refereed papers
800
articles published by ESO users exceed-
ed 1000 in a single year.
600
This peak surpasses the previous high
of 870 papers in 2012 and is mirrored
by excellent statistics from each of the
400
individual observing sites. The number
of VLT/VLTI and La Silla papers under-
went a significant upswing in 2017. The
largest increase occurred for ESO’s 200
­survey telescopes, VISTA and especially
the VST, which generated almost 40%
more papers than in the previous year. 0
The number of papers using APEX during
6

9
00

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

14

15

16

17
09

10

11

12

13
9

9
9

20

20
20
20

20

20

20
20
19

20

20
19

19

20
19

20

20

20

20

20
20

ESO time remained stable, while ALMA VLT/VLTI La Silla 20

Survey telescopes APEX ALMA Total
data obtained during ESO observing time
led to 14% more papers than in 2016. Refereed papers using ESO data, 1996 – 2017. obtained during reserved periods (for example,
Some papers use data from more than one facility. national allocations of time) are not included. Survey
VLT/VLTI: papers using data generated by VLT and telescopes: papers using data from ESO’s survey
In 2017, approximately 11 000 refereed VLTI instruments, including visitor instruments for telescopes VISTA and VST. APEX: papers using APEX
papers were screened through text-­ which observing time is recommended by the ESO data, including visitor instruments for which observ-
mining and manual verification; this is Observing Programmes Committee (OPC), for exam- ing time is recommended by the ESO OPC (for exam-
ple, ULTRACAM and PIONIER. La Silla: papers using ple, Z-Spec). ALMA: papers using data generated
about 300 papers more than in the pre­
data from La Silla facilities, including visitor instru- by ALMA. For APEX and ALMA, only papers based
vious two years. The ESO publication ments (for example, ULTRACAM). Papers based on (entirely or partly) during ESO time are included.
statistics per site and for the entire data from non-ESO telescopes or observations
Observatory are shown in the bar chart.
Before inclusion in the telbib database
each paper is carefully examined by the
curators to make sure that ESO’s selec-
tion criteria are met. Details of telbib,
tables with links to the papers in the bar
chart, and the methodology used to
screen papers can be found via the telbib
webpage at http://telbib.eso.org.

In 2017, the public interface of telbib

was enhanced to provide more informa-
tion about which data were used in a
particular paper, and to enable access to
reduced as well as raw data for papers Revised layout and
new f­eatures of t­elbib
that use archival data products. A new records, including
checkbox on the telbib interface selects ORCID icons that
papers that (exclusively or partly) use data link to the author’s
obtained from the ESO Science Archive. profile page, direct
links to raw data
The display of data links in the detailed and data products
record view has been revised so that pro- in the ESO ­Science
grammes are grouped by instrument. Archive, and icons
Instrument names are also connected to that provide access
to instrument
the respective instrument pages. In addi- information.
tion, ORCIDs (Open Researcher and Con-
tributor IDs) have been integrated into records, providing links to the author’s
author records and are displayed in telbib ORCID profile page.

ESO Annual Report 2017 27

Publications from different sites VISTA and VST survey papers 2010–2017 Refereed papers using
160 VISTA or VST Public
Survey data between
The VLT and VLTI contributed data to 140 2010 – 2017. Papers can
630 r­ efereed papers in 2017, surpassing use data from more than
120
the previous high of 616 papers in 2012. one survey.
The second-generation VLT instrument No. of papers 100
X-shooter had been unavailable to the
community for some time during Periods 80
97 and 98 for technical upgrades, but 60
after returning to normal operations it
quickly resumed its high level of produc- 40
tivity, with 103 papers in 2017 — an
20
increase of over 50% compared to 2016.
The newer second-generation instrument, 0
MUSE, showed an even steeper increase, G

E
V

EO

AS

VX
ST

G
AS
VH

D
VV

VM
N

VV
L
Ki

U
KI

producing 77 papers in 2017, which is

I

AT

H
aV

VI

RO
VI

VP
ltr

N
more than in the three preceding years
U

VI
and an increase of more than 60%. Using
data from VIMOS on UT3, the public
spectroscopic survey called VANDELS — ALMA papers 2012–2017 Refereed publications
350 per year based on ESO
a deep VIMOS survey of the CANDELS ALMA time compared to
fields (UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey field and 300 all of ALMA.
Chandra Deep Field South) published its
first science paper. On the VLTI, the first 250
seven papers using the second-generation
No. of papers

instrument GRAVITY were published. 200

ESO’s survey telescopes, VISTA and
the VST, provided data for a total of 152
papers in 2017. The productivity of the
VST increased remarkably, resulting in
55 papers, three times more than were
published in the previous year (18 in 2016).
A slight increase in the use of archival
data was noted for these telescopes. The
vast majority of VISTA and VST data
papers published between 2010 and 2017
(456 out of 510, i.e. 89%) deployed data
obtained through the ongoing public
­surveys. Papers using data from two of
the second-generation VISTA public
­surveys (VIsta Near-infraRed Observa-
tions Unveiling Gravitational wave Events
[VINROUGE] and the extended VISTA
Variables in the Via Lactea survey [VVVX])
appeared in 2017. The publication statis-
tics per survey are in the upper bar chart.
La Silla facilities are doing remarkably
well. An increasing number of telescopes,
such as the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre tele-
scope, the Swiss 1.2-metre Leonhard
Euler Telescope, and the Danish 1.54-
metre telescope, are hosted but not run
by ESO, and their papers are not includ-
ed in the ESO bibliography. Nevertheless
the site provided data for nearly 230 ref-
ereed papers in 2017. HARPS continues
to be outstanding, producing 97 papers
150
100
50
0
2012 2013
in 2017, with the ESO Faint Object Spec-
trograph and Camera 2 (EFOSC2) and
the Fibre-fed Extended Range Optical
­Spectrograph (FEROS) producing 55 and
40 papers, respectively.
APEX has generated more than 600 data
papers since 2006, using observing time
from all APEX partners; the Max Planck
Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) has
50% observing time, the Onsala Space
Observatory (OSO) has 23% and ESO
has 27%. Almost 60% of APEX papers
used at least some data obtained during
ESO time.
ALMA is a partnership between ESO,
East Asia, and North America, in cooper-
ation with the Republic of Chile. Using
data from all partners, the ALMA users
community published more than 330
papers in 2017, bringing the total number
of papers to almost 900 (since 2012).
More than half of these papers involved
2014 2015 2016 2017
ESO/ALMA all ALMA
data taken during the European ALMA
time. The number of ALMA data papers
per year are shown in the lower bar chart.
The ALMA bibliography is maintained
jointly by the librarians at ESO and the
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
(NRAO) in the USA as well as by the
National Astronomical Observatory of
Japan (NAOJ). Publications based on
data from all ALMA partners are recorded
in telbib, but only those based on Euro-
pean observing time are counted in the
ESO statistics, unless otherwise noted.
ESO Science Archive Facility
The ESO Science Archive Facility con-
tains data from ESO telescopes and
makes them available to the astronomy
community. PIs of s­ uccessful observing
proposals have exclusive access to
their scientific data for the duration of a

28 ESO Annual Report 2017

 Archive data usage Percentage of papers
100 using data obtained by The statistics presented here are derived
90 the team of authors (PI
from the ESO Telescope Bibliography
data), obtained entirely
80 from the ESO Science (telbib), a database of refereed papers
Percentage of papers

70 Archive (Arc only), or published by the ESO users community

60
partly obtained by the that links publications with the data in the
team and from the ESO Science Archive. telbib is developed
50 Archive (Arc + PI) for the and maintained by the ESO Library. It is
40 publication years
compiled by scanning articles published
2010 – 2017.
30 in the major astronomical journals for
20 ESO-related keywords (for example, tele-
10 scope and instrument names). Journals
routinely screened for ESO-related key-
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 words are: A&A, A&ARv, AJ, ApJ, ApJS,
Arc + PI % Arc only % PI data % AN, ARA&A, EM&P, ExA, Icar, MNRAS,
Nature, NewA, NewAR, PASJ, PASP,
proprietary period, normally one year, increased fraction of almost 30% of the P&SS, and Science. All papers included
after which the data become available to data papers used archival observations, in the database have been inspected
the community at large. In addition to emphasising the importance of the ESO visually by the curators to ensure that
raw data, the archive also provides various Science Archive Facility for the Organi­ they directly use ESO observational data.
types of data products. The fraction of sation’s research data infrastructure. Further information about telbib and
­various statistics and reports can be
ESO data papers that deploy archival The distribution of papers using PI data,
found on the web (http://www.eso.org/
data, either exclusively or in conjunction archival data, or a combination of both
sci/libraries/telbib_info.html).
with data obtained by the authors, has (Archive + PI data) for the years 2010 to
been around 25% since 2012. In 2017, an 2017 are shown in the bar chart. Access to records of all 2017 data
papers written by the ESO users
community is available at http://telbib.
ESO/J. Walsh

eso.org/ESODataPapers2017.php.
A separate listing of refereed publica-
tions by ESO scientists with or without
use of ESO data can be found at
http://www.eso.org/sci/libraries/telbib_
info/AR/ESOStaffPapers2017.pdf.

The planetary nebula NGC 7009 (the Saturn Nebula)

captured by MUSE on the VLT.

ESO Annual Report 2017 29

 This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar
ESO/M. Kornmesser

asteroid to be detected: `Oumuamua. This unique

object travelled through space for millions of years.
It seems to be a dark red highly-elongated metallic
or rocky object, about 400 metres long, and is
unlike anything normally found in the Solar System.
ESO/M. Kornmesser

Artist’s impression of the ultracool dwarf star

TRAPPIST-1 as seen from the surface of one of
its planets.

30 ESO Annual Report 2017

 Education and Outreach

ESO celebrated some remarkable and

ESO/P. Horálek
widely publicised scientific achievements
during the year, reaching hundreds of
­millions of people around the world,
and using striking astronomical images,
artists’ impressions and creative videos
to maximise the impact of these results.

The most popular story of the year came

in the form of a mysteriously long, thin,
spinning interstellar asteroid — the sur-
prise visitor to our Solar System named
`Oumuamua. Coverage of this strange relic
from outer space lasted for weeks, as the
initial excitement turned to intrigue owing
to the odd cigar-like shape of the asteroid
and its strange motion. This sparked
questions about its origins and even spec-
ulation about its being an alien spaceship,
and it will likely continue to intrigue scien-
tists as well as the public. ESO — with its
remarkable fleet of telescopes (including
the upcoming ELT) — is well placed to
characterise similar visitors in the future.
In February, astronomers discovered
seven Earth-sized planets just 40 light-
years away, orbiting the ultra-cool dwarf
star TRAPPIST-1. This was the second
most popular press release of the year
and the initial discovery has led to a
­number of new findings. Another popular
press release reported the discovery of
the closest temperate world orbiting a
quiet star — Ross 128b. This raised many
questions on social media and sparked
heated debates about the future of human-
kind and the possibility of reaching other
planetary systems.
ESO/M. Zamani
In October, ESO held a successful press
conference to mark the emergence of a
new type of multi-messenger astronomy,
announcing the ground-breaking detec-
tion of both gravitational waves and light
from a merging neutron star pair, called
a kilonova. At least one million viewers
watched the online live stream, and ESO’s
creative artists designed memorable
and exciting images and videos illustrat-
ing these momentous results.
2017 also saw important progress with
the construction of the world’s “Biggest
Eye on the Sky”, ESO’s ELT. In June, the
First Stone ceremony was held and the
Director General was joined by the Presi-
dent of the Republic of Chile to mark this
historic occasion.
The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre.
ESO’s biggest outreach project to date,
the ESO Supernova, is getting closer to
becoming a fully-realised planetarium
and visitor centre. The biggest part of the
planetarium’s technical installation was
concluded in 2017 and effort was invest-
ed in producing inspiring planetarium
shows, exhibition content and educational
workshops, as well as in preparing the
opening campaign.
The “Our Place in Space” Hubble exhibi-
tion, produced for the European Space
ESO press conference announcing the first discovery
of a neutron star merger and its electromagnetic
counterpart, a kilonova.

ESO Annual Report 2017 31

Agency (ESA), was shown in Venice,
and will come to the ESO Supernova
in May 2018. The exhibition, which
attracted almost 30 000 visitors over
two months, showcased the beautiful
images that Hubble has captured over
the last 28 years.
announcing the arrival of new telescopes
and instruments at all of ESO’s sites and
key ELT milestones. ESO Pictures of the
Week con­tinue to be an effective way to
report on news items that do not require
a full press release; these are also rou-
tinely picked up by the wider media.
the press activities for ESA/Hubble and
the International Astronomical Union,
including press releases, announcements
and ­Pictures of the Week.
Publications

Finally, the ESOblog was launched
(https://www.eso.org/public/blog/), to
provide a glimpse behind the scenes at
ESO and insights into the many facets of
ESO’s organisation and its staff.
Press activities
In 2017, 41 press releases were issued,
including 17 science releases, several
of which had very high impact. The num-
ber of requests for consideration as
potential press releases continues to
increase. In addition to the large number
of very high-profile ESO-related science
results there were several news items
ESO 2017: News Popularity
900 000
800 000
Over 75 formal interview requests were
received from media worldwide, resulting
in extensive coverage, especially in the
case of the gravitational wave event in
October.
Seventeen weekly posts on the ESOblog
were released since it started in Septem-
ber 2017. A smaller blog series of seven
posts featuring infographics was also
­featured, which explored ALMA’s involve-
ment in the efforts of the Event Horizon
Telescope (EHT) and the Global millimetre-
VLBI Array (GMVA) to image the shadow
of the event horizon of the supermassive
black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.
Finally Outreach also continued to cover
ESO produces a wide range of print
products (for example, periodicals,
­posters, brochures and flyers), merchan-
dise and exhibition panels for audiences
with and without a scientific background,
which reinforces the ESO brand. Over
1180 pages of publications and merchan-
dise were produced. Many of these are
for the ESO Supernova and include prod-
ucts for younger generations.
Education and the ESO Supernova
Planetarium & Visitor Centre
With the inauguration of the ESO
­Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre
approaching in April 2018, interest con-
tinued, including requests from schools
and companies to host events in the
spectacular building.

700 000 The exhibition planner Design & Mehr

and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical
600 000 Studies (HITS) worked with ESO on the
production of around 500 individual
500 000
­exhibition items in English and German.
400 000 This included physical ESO exhibits that
were organised and prepared for display
300 000 together with partners, as well as scien­
200 000
tific and educational guidance for the
hands-on stations. ESO developed and
100 000 delivered major parts of the exhibition
and planetarium IT concept. Work pro-
0 gressed on the programme of activities,
32-Sci-Freon40

40-Pho-Sharpless 29
14-Pho-SMC

20-Pho-Messier 77
21-Org-Australia

25-Sci-Jellyfish galaxies

27-Sci-starburst galaxies
2-Org-VLT Alpha Centuri
3-Pho-ALMA Starts
4-Org-ELT mirrors
5-Pho-Cat and Lobster
6-Sci-TRAPPIST-1
7-Pho-NGC 1055
8-Sci-A2744_YD4
9-Sci-Dark Matter
10-Sci-BH winds

13-Org-ALMA Residencia

15-Org-ELT M2
16-Org-ELT First Stone
17-Org-ELT
18-Sci-IRAS 16293-2422
19-Pho-Sharpless 2-54

26-Sci-Antares

28-Org-ESO DG

33-Sci-Kilonova/GW
34-Pho-Fornax/VST
35-Sci-Proxima dust
36-Sci-Ross128
30-Pho-ALMA bubble

37-Sci-Interstellar asteroid
38-Sci-MUSE/HUDF
39-Org-ESPRESSO

41-Pho-π1 Gruis
1-Pho-Orion’s Clouds

23-Sci-Orion Nebula

31-Pho-Saturn Nebula
12-Sci-exoplanet
11-Pho-Stellar fireworks

29-Sci-Titanium planet
22-Org-MASCA RA

24-Org-AOF

including promotional events for various

target groups and an advertising plan.

Several partnerships were initiated,

The relative popularity of the 41 ESO press releases
in 2017. The most popular releases were the dis­
covery of the seven TRAPPIST-1 planets (eso1706),
the gravitational wave/kilonova event in October
(eso1733), and in successive weeks in November,
the planet Ross 128b (eso1736) and the interstellar
asteroid `Oumuamua (eso1737).
Google Analytics (green) measures the number of visi-
tors to the news release web page on www.eso.org.
Eurekalert (yellow) counts how many journalists fol-
lowed the news release link on the Eurekalert website
(a news aggregation and distribution site for journal-
ists). Meltwater (red) is an electronic press clippings
service; the metric is the number of online newspaper
articles about a particular news release. These three
metrics have widely different values and have been
scaled to the range of Google Analytics values.
including: Bayern.de to promote the
ESO Supernova to tourists; Bayerischer
Rundfunk; educational partners, Evans
& Sutherland; and several artists. The
planning of the ESOshop in the ESO
Supernova progressed with the selection
of shop furniture and production of new
merchandise. A point-of-sale system was
procured with the Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) team. Fundraising efforts
continued, with US $ 3500 secured from
the international society for optics and

32 ESO Annual Report 2017


ESO/P. Horálek
ESO education and Public Outreach Department
staff looking at the VLT and the Milky Way at the first
trial show of the ESO Supernova Planetarium.
photonics (SPIE) for a school work-shop
focussing on optics and a pledge of
US $ 250 000 from the LOR f­oundation.
Construction culminated in the installation
and commissioning of the planetarium
system. This included the core projection
system, the first of two real-time render-
ing computer clusters and peripheral
­systems for sound and lighting. The first
show for an external audience was pre-
sented on 14 October 2017. ESO aug-
mented the planetarium system with criti-
cal functions to improve its performance,
reduce the manpower needs and inte-
grate the system into the ESO framework.
Additional improvements are planned
for 2018.
To further exploit the possibilities that
the planetarium offers, the “Data2Dome”
­system was implemented, through which
it is possible to disseminate planetarium
content developed by ESO to other
­planetariums worldwide. This can be seen
as a multiplier for ESO’s planetarium-
related outreach efforts. It is also a way to
support planetariums in all ESO Member
States (and beyond) with their mission
to communicate astronomy to the public.
Over 290 school students from Germany,
Switzerland and Italy, and 200 local kin-
dergarten teachers participated in group
visits to the Headquarters in Garching.
ESO-supported AstroCamps were held
in Portugal and Italy, hosting 71 high
school students from about 20 different
countries. ESO also became a partner
in the newly established “MINT-Region
Münchner Umland” — an initiative that
aims to bring young people closer to
­science and technology.
Audiovisuals
Extraordinary effort was invested into the
production of HD, Ultra HD and fulldome
audiovisuals in 2017, most of which will be
used in the ESO Supernova. The success-
ful ESOcast video podcast series has
been supplemented with a shorter series
called ESOcast Light, which is directed
at younger viewers.
The number of video views on social
media and the iTunes rankings reflect an
increasing popularity. In 2017, more
efforts were invested in recording inter-
esting explanatory interviews for use
in multiple video products. New Ultra HD
video compilations about the ELT First
Stone ceremony and the VLT were pro-
duced as well as new trailers to show-
case ALMA, La Silla and Paranal.
The online video and image archive
­represents an essential resource for
ESO’s audiovisual content distribution
and includes 3275 videos (including an
increasing number of fulldome videos).
Captions in multiple languages and an
advanced metadata system facilitate
­integration with external platforms and
allow quick and easy access. ESO dis-
tributes around one petabyte of audio­
visuals per year — more than any other
astronomy organisation in the world.
Web and software development
About a 100 info- and touch-screen
applications for the ESO Supernova
have been implemented. They follow the
technological principles of the popular
kiosk screens already in use at ESO,
but include custom design and are inter-
active. Dedicated kiosk-style computers
were installed for the “Our Place in Space”
Secondary school
­students attending
AstroCamp 2017 in
Northern Portugal.
ESO Annual Report 2017 33
 Web visitors 2017: 6 484 797
eso.org – 55.7%
spacetelescope.org – 31.9%
iau.org – 9.7%
portaltotheuniverse.org – 1.7%
supernova.eso.org – 0.4%
astronomy2009.org – 0.2%
exoworlds.org – 0.1%
eiroforum.org – 0.1%
capjournal.org – 0.1%
A chart showing the dis- Long-running partnerships (Photo
tribution of 6.5 million
­NightScape Awards, Insight Astronomy
web visits in 2017 across
the ESO, Hubble and Pho­tographer of the Year, Photo Ambas-
IAU outreach websites. sadors, Music Ambassadors) continued
to bring ESO visibility and support.
As in previous years, several print prod-
ucts were distributed worldwide (The
Messenger, Annual Report, ELT brochure,
Studentship poster, etc.). The address
database continues to grow, incorporat-
ing groups such as Associations in
Garching, Planetarium Influencers and
Local Attractions.

ESA/Hubble exhibition in Venice, and
standard kiosks were installed at
all ESO sites, monitored centrally from
Garching.
The ESOShop and HubbleShop payment
system was replaced, with payments
being handled offsite by a payment pro-
vider. Significant support was also given
to the IAU in preparation for the IAU 2018
General Assembly.
A live streaming setup was tested and
implemented for the gravitational wave
ESO/Red Dots
Forum), products and services (ESOcast
Light Series, ESOblog launch, Open
House Day), partnerships (Insight Astron-
omy Photographer of the Year etc.), and
also some one-off events (the arrival of the
new Director General and assisting the
volunteer-led group pro­moting Ireland’s
accession to ESO called #TimeToJoinESO).
Support was also given to ­celebrate
­Denmark’s 50th anniversary as an ESO
Member State.
ESO’s impact on social media also con-
tinued to grow. Around 40 000 individual
messages were posted on social media,
spreading the word about ESO results
and milestones. A particular success was
the gravitational wave campaign. The
#ESOlive hashtag reached more than
5.3 million unique people and 2.1 million
Twitter users per day over this period.
An Instagram account was also opened
in 2017 and grew at a faster rate than any
other ESO social media channel.

press conference in October, using

standard video conferencing equipment
from the auditorium and streaming it to
YouTube. This was the first time ESO
streamed a press conference to the
­public live online.

Community coordination (strategy,

­promotion, distribution and social media)
Above: The Red Dots
campaign is using one
A comprehensive strategy to promote
of ESO’s most success-
ESO’s studentship and fellowship pro- ful exoplanet hunters,
grammes was devised and implemented. HARPS on the 3.6-
A strategy for event management at metre telescope, to look
for Earth-like planets
Headquarters, incorporating future ESO
around some of our
Supernova events, was also prepared. nearest stars: Proxima
Strategic media support was given to Centauri, ­Barnard’s Star
special topics, such as the partnership and Ross 154.
with Australia.

Several promotional campaigns were

organised, including for scientific results
(for example, the gravitational wave
press conference, TRAPPIST-1, and “Red
Dots”), organisational milestones (for
example, the ELT First Stone event, ELT
contracts and the collaboration with the
Breakthrough Foundation), industrial
opportunities (the Big Science Business Left: An ESOblog entry.

34 ESO Annual Report 2017

Exhibitions and events

ESO hosted a total of 42 events and 170 million+ Several hundred

­exhibitions in 2017, including exhibitions reached via social media million reached
in Germany (FORSCHA and Hannover on ESO’s accounts via traditional media
Messe), Austria (Naturhistorisches
­Museum), Czech Republic (EWASS, scien-
tists) and Denmark (Big Bang teachers
conference). The ESO Open House Day 270 596 64 236 4302
2017 in Garching was a great success Facebook Twitter Instagram
with a record number of visitors (5600). friends followers followers

In Chile, event highlights included the ELT

First Stone ceremony in May 2017, and
the stunning audiovisual exhibition in the
37 100 individual social media 1720
Via Suecia tunnel that was inaugurated posts on 72 channels ESOshop
in December 2017 in the busy metro in 18 languages orders sent
­station Los Leones in Santiago. ESO par-
ticipated in major events in Chile includ-
ing the Science Week (16 000 people) 75 41 62
with interactive activities, and the Festival
interview press media
Internacional de Innovación Social (FiiS) in
Antofagasta (20 000 people), which fea- requests releases visits
tured a videolink to Paranal, and included
a talk in Santiago, as well as an ESO stand.
28 ESON countries 1
planetarium &
Media, VIP and weekend visits in Chile
visitor centre
Public weekend visits to La Silla and 7936 weekend visitors built
­Paranal attracted 7936 people. 62 media
groups visited Paranal, ALMA, APEX
and La Silla during 2017. Several media 82 12 360 3275
delegations participated in the ELT print images videos
First Stone Ceremony at Paranal, from
products total total
Brazil, Chile, the Czech Republic, France,
Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. Among
the prestigious media outlets hosted
were Al Jazeera, the BBC, France 5, GEO www 1900 web content 340 distribution
Magazine, and Warner Bros, Portugal. @3!G tickets resolved tickets resolved
A team from Česká televize, which covers
the most influential topics in the Czech
Republic, also visited ESO’s facilities to 3.6
celebrate the tenth anniversary of the 51 755 28 670
Czech Republic’s joining ESO. newsletter contact
million
visits on
subscribers addresses
eso.org
ESO Science Outreach Network

ESO operates the ESO Science Outreach
Network (ESON) to increase the visibility
of ESO in Member States. Outreach
­specialists, press officers and educators
act as direct local contacts with the
media and organise the translation of
ESO-related information into their local
language. In total, ESON provided infor-
mation in 19 languages and operates in Some key figures related to ESO’s education and
outreach activities in 2017.
28 countries including the 15 Member
States — and it acquired its newest
member, Hungary, in 2017. News products
are translated from English into 18 differ-
ent languages. In 2017, around 30% of
the web pages viewed on eso.org were
translated by ESON.

ESO Annual Report 2017 35

36 ESO Annual Report 2017
A stunning view of the stellar nursery Sharpless 29
taken using OmegaCAM on the VST.

ESO Annual Report 2017 37

Y. Beletsky (LCO)/ESO
Operations

The Directorate of Operations is
responsible for all activities related to
science operations, including the
preparation and execution of observ-
ing programmes, the operation of the
La Silla Paranal Observatory (LPO)
at its La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor
sites, and the delivery of raw and cali-
brated data. This role involves user
support, dataflow management, oper-
ations technical support and the
development and maintenance of a
science archive provided by the Data
Management and Operations (DMO)
Division. The Science Archive Facility
holds all the data obtained with ESO
telescopes as well as highly pro-
cessed, advanced products derived
from them. In addition, the Directorate
of Operations includes ESO’s contri-
bution to ALMA operations and devel-
opment through the ESO ALMA Sup-
port Centre (EASC).
The 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla.
La Silla ­­Paranal Observatory
Operations
The VLT at Paranal operates with four
8.2-metre UTs and a suite of nine first-
generation instruments and three of the
four second-generation instruments. The
AOF with four laser guide stars and a
deformable secondary mirror has convert-
ed UT4 into an adaptive optics telescope
that provides atmosphere-corrected
images to its three instruments. The VLTI
combines the light of either the four UTs
or the four ATs to feed one of the three
interferometric instruments with a coher-
ent wavefront. The survey telescopes
VISTA and VST are in regular operation.
On La Silla, the NTT and the ESO 3.6-
metre telescope operate with an instru-
mentation suite of three instruments.
The La Silla site also supports 11 hosted
telescope projects, of which eight are
currently operational.
The Observatory further provides opera-
tional support for APEX with its 12-metre
sub-mm radio antenna located on the
high plateau of Chajnantor at an altitude
of 5100 metres; it has a suite of hetero-
dyne and bolometer facility instruments
as well as several visitor instruments.
For Periods 99 and 100 the scientific
community submitted respectively 883
and 895 Phase 1 observing proposals
for the LPO including APEX, proof of
the continued high demand for the ESO
facilities. About 87% of the proposals
were for the Paranal site with VLT, VLTI,
VST and VISTA.
The Observatory continued its efficient
operation due to the high availability and
low technical downtime of its telescopes
and instruments — key elements for pro-
ductive scientific observations. In 2017,
1903 nights were scheduled for scientific
observations with the four UTs at the
VLT and with the two major telescopes at
La Silla. This is equivalent to about 87%
of the total number of nights that are in
principle available over the whole year.
The remaining 13% were scheduled for
planned engineering and maintenance
activities to guarantee the continued high
performance of the telescopes and instru-
ments, and include time slots for com-
missioning new instruments and facilities.
On UT4, 56 nights were invested in com-
missioning the MUSE and HAWK-I instru-
ments with the AOF.
Of the available science time for the VLT,
4% was lost to technical problems and
about 13% to adverse weather condi-
tions. On La Silla bad weather accounted
for losses of about 19% and technical
problems for about 0.7%. VISTA delivered
287 nights of survey observations out of
the 350 that were allocated and the VST
delivered 276 nights of survey observa-
tions out of 349 scheduled. Both survey
telescopes were affected by about 19%
of weather losses. The technical losses
of VISTA and VST were 2.2% and 2.1%,
respectively; a reduction from previous
years and significantly smaller than at
the UTs.
The El Niño event from 2014 to 2016
was particularly strong and unexpectedly
extended into 2017, leading to further
exceptionally high weather losses. It
­culminated in May and June 2017 with
30 – 45% losses at the UTs and survey
­telescopes at Paranal and 40 – 55% at
the La Silla telescopes. Another smaller
peak was observed in September fol-
lowed by a quick decline. As of October,
the weather patterns had mostly returned
to the seasonal normal.
Complementing regular VLT operations,
the VLTI was scheduled for an additional
151 nights to execute scientific observa-
tions using baselines with either the UTs
or the ATs. Of the scheduled VLTI science
time, 5.8% was lost to technical problems,
and 16% to bad weather. 78 engineering
nights and 39 commissioning nights were
invested during 2017 in the continued
commissioning of the VLTI infrastructure
and GRAVITY with the ATs and the UTs.
The combination of high operational effi-
ciency, system reliability and availability
for scientific observations of the La Silla
and Paranal telescopes and instruments
has again resulted in high scientific pro-
ductivity. The statistical breakdown is
presented in the Publication Digest (p. 27).
Since starting operations in 1999 the
VLT and VLTI have produced a total of
7733 publications and continued to add
a further dozen every week. Interestingly,
the veteran workhorse instruments
FORS2 and the Ultraviolet and Visual
Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) — both
ESO Annual Report 2017 39
commissioned alongside the VLT — con-
tinue to lead the publications statistics in
2017, with 133 and 106 publications,
respectively (compared with 123 and 109
in 2016). These instruments are closely
followed by X-shooter, VIMOS and MUSE,
which produced 102, 88 and 77 publica-
tions, respectively (compared to 66, 75
and 47 in 2016).
Paranal Observatory
Infrastructure
The inauguration of the Armazones sub-
station on 26 May 2017 was held on the
periphery of the ELT First Stone Ceremony
and marked an important milestone in
the history of the Paranal Observatory:
the arrival of the public electrical grid to
the Paranal – A rmazones site. The 66 kV
line from the central Chilean electrical
grid (SIC) arrives at the Armazones sub-
station, located about halfway between
Paranal and Armazones, and power is
distributed to the two telescope sites via
two dedicated 23 kV lines. During the
construction of the 11 kilometre-long
23 kV line to Paranal, the preparations for
the electrical grid at Paranal ran smoothly.
These involved the installation of the
­custom-made transformers from 23 kV to
10 kV — to match the existing electrical
system at Paranal — and the installation
of a Power Conditioning System.
As for any other electrical grid, blackouts
lasting from milliseconds to days, voltage
spikes and frequency variations are to be
expected. Special precautions had to be
taken to prepare the sensitive equipment,
including the telescopes, instruments and
other equipment installed at Paranal. As
the existing multi-fuel turbine and diesel
generators could not cope with the black-
out characteristics of an electrical grid,
a new rotary uninterruptible power supply
provided by the Belgian company Euro-
Diesel was installed at Paranal’s power
station. Spinning flywheels serve as an
energy source during short out­ages and
allow the connected diesel generator
to start within seconds to cover longer
outages. At the same time the inertia of
the large rotating mass of the flywheel
absorbs other grid fluctuations. Once the
Power Conditioning System was success-
fully installed and commissioned, the
whole Paranal Observa­tory was connect-
40 ESO Annual Report 2017
ed to the electrical grid on 7 December
2017 — about thirty years after construc-
tion of the Observatory began.
Telescopes and Instrumentation
By the end of 2016, the AOF on Yepun
(UT4) had been successfully deployed
and commissioned with its four Laser
Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) and the
Deformable Secondary Mirror (DSM) in
non-adaptive mode together with the
­telescope, its three instruments, and the
interferometer. This caused great excite-
ment at the Observatory, and using the
adaptive optics mode with MUSE and
HAWK-I generated a lot of attention and
expectation among the user community.
The next steps for the AOF were to
­commission the already installed GRound-
layer Adaptive optics Assisted by Lasers
(GRAAL) adaptive optics module for the
HAWK-I instrument and to install and
commission the Ground Atmospheric
Layer Adaptive optiCs for Spectroscopic
Imaging (GALACSI) adaptive optics mod-
ule for the MUSE instrument. Both adap-
tive optics modules acquire the artificial
laser guide stars produced by the 4LGSF
and feed them to the wavefront sensing
systems, which, with the help of a real-
time computer, provide the required con-
trol signals to operate the 1170 actuators
of the DSM in fully-adaptive mode at a
loop frequency of about 1000 Hz. Both
adaptive optics modules aim to correct
for the lowest layers of the atmospheric
turbulence encountered in the first several
hundred metres above the telescope, pro-
viding instruments with improved image
quality over the large field of view in line
Inauguration of the
­A rmazones substation,
marking the arrival of
the public electrical
grid to Paranal and
Armazones.
with the HAWK-I and MUSE instruments.
The astronomers call this the “seeing
enhancer mode”.
HAWK-I is a cryogenic near-infrared wide-
field imager installed at the Nasmyth A
focus of UT4 with an on-sky field of view
of 7.5 × 7.5 arcminutes and a pixel scale
of 0.106 arcseconds that already matches
the expected improved image quality to
be provided by GRAAL with the AOF.
During the commissioning of GRAAL with
HAWK-I over the course of the year, it
was confirmed that the full width at half
maximum of the stellar images could be
systematically reduced by 0.1 to 0.25 arc-
seconds, providing sharper images
across the full field of view. MUSE is an
integral field spectrograph located at the
Nasmyth B focus of UT4. It has a modular
structure composed of 24 iden­tical inte-
gral field unit modules that, in the wide-
field mode, sample a near-contiguous
1 × 1 arcminute field of view with a spatial
resolution of 0.2 arcseconds. Spectrally,
the instrument samples almost the full
optical domain with a mean resolution of
3000. The GALACSI team managed to
close the four loops of their adaptive optics
system (one loop for each laser guide
star) for the first time during the night of
22 March, and to feed the MUSE instru-
ment with a ground-layer corrected field
at visual wavelengths. In the meantime,
both instruments underwent several addi-
tional commissioning and science verifi-
cation runs to optimise and characterise
their detailed performance and to demon-
strate the scientific potential of these new
modes; they are now offered to the com-
munity in regular science operation.

Giorgio Calderone, INAF Trieste
Giorgio Calderone, INAF Trieste
ESPRESSO’s first light team on the platform at
Paranal.
ESPRESSO arrived at its final location at
the incoherent focus of the VLT located
in the Combined-Coudé Laboratory
(CCL), where it was installed during Sep-
tember and October. ESPRESSO is a
fibre-fed, cross-dispersed, high-resolution
échelle spectrograph and can be con­
sidered a “super-HARPS”. With a radial-
velocity precision of better than 10 cm s – 1,
Earth-mass planets in the habitable zone
of a low mass star will be detectable.
ESPRESSO uses light collected by any of
the four UTs, but is also able to gather
the light from all four UTs at once, theoreti-
cally resulting in a collecting area equiva-
lent to a single telescope of 16 metres in
diameter. This 4-UT mode will enable
observations of very faint objects at high
spectral resolution and makes ESPRESSO
a powerful tool for measuring the variation
of the physical constants across time and
space and for the analysis of the chemical
composition of stars in nearby galaxies.
Denis Mégevand, University of Geneva
The reassembly of the ­ESPRESSO
­spectrograph was completed by the end
of October and first light with a single UT
was achieved on 27 November.
Far left: ESPRESSO’s
front-end.
Left: Inside the ­vacuum
vessel, where the spec-
trographs are located to
ensure stability.
While the first second-generation VLTI
instrument GRAVITY carried out its
first intensive six-month monitoring cam-
paign of the Galactic Centre with the
While the first second-generation VLTI
instrument, GRAVITY, carried out its
first intensive six-month monitoring cam-
paign of the Galactic Centre with the
VLTI using the four UTs, the next second-
generation VLTI instrument to be installed
— MATISSE — passed its final tests at
the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur and
was prepared for transportation to Chile
and integration into the VLTI.
MATISSE is a four-way beam combiner,
using the light collected by up to four
ATs or UTs to perform both spectroscopic
and imaging observations. In doing so,
MATISSE possesses the theoretical
imaging power of a telescope of up to
MATISSE Project/Y. Bresson
MATISSE in the labora-
tory at the Observatoire
de la Côte d’Azur before
being transported to
Chile for integration into
the VLTI.
ESO Annual Report 2017 41
200 m in diameter and the capability to
produce stunningly detailed images in
infrared light from the L-band to the
N-band of the electromagnetic spectrum
using aperture synthesis image recon-
struction techniques. With these capabili-
ties, the instrument is expected to con-
tribute to fundamental research areas in
astronomy such as the inner regions of
discs around young stars where planets
are forming, the study of stars at different
stages of their lives, and the environment
around black holes in active galactic nuclei.
After MATISSE had safely arrived at
­Paranal the whole instrument was re-­
integrated and re-tested in the New Inte-
gration Hall before being transferred to
its final location in the VLTI Laboratory
where the integration with the rest of the
VLTI infrastructure continued. The first
fringes using MATISSE and the four ATs
are expected in 2018.
Science Operations
A new web-based Phase 2 tool (p2) and
an updated version of a visitor observing
tool have been deployed for the prepara-
tion of visitor mode observations as of
Period 99. Key new features of these new
tools include the real-time online creation
and editing of observing blocks, which
can then be seen instantly by the opera-
tion staff at the telescope and which are
ready for execution. This replaces the
check-in and check-out process neces-
sary with the Phase 2 preparation tool
p2pp. The extension of the p2 tool to ser-
vice mode will take place gradually during
Periods 101 and 102.
To support this more agile handling of
observing preparation for visitor mode,
Paranal Science Operations has deployed
the Paranal Observatory Eavesdropping
Mode since Period 99. This allows the
scientists to participate remotely in the
observing process by viewing all relevant
instrument operation panels in real time
via a web-based interface. The eaves-
dropping mode is mainly aimed at users
of the “designated visitor mode”, who
remotely participate in observations, but
it is also available for users of time-critical
service mode observations (for example,
targets of opportunity) and for senior
observers who may need to provide
remote support for students during their
observations.
42 ESO Annual Report 2017
Obsolescence Projects
The refurbishment of the 8-metre coating
unit under contract to the Danish com­
pany Polyteknik AS allowed the recoating
of all primary (M1) and tertiary (M3) mirrors
of the UTs in 2017. After UT1 and UT3 had
been recoated in August and December
2016, UT3 and UT4 followed as planned
in April and August 2017, respectively.
The coating of the M1 and M3 mirrors of
the ATs will follow in 2018. Together with
the replacement of all M4-8 optics of the
AT coudé optical trains that was carried
out in 2017, all four ATs should be back
in operation with optimal transmission by
mid-2018.
Hosted Telescopes at Paranal
A second hosted telescope project, called
the Search for habitable Planets EClipsing
ULtra-cOOl Stars (SPECULOOS), is com-
plementary to the already operational
Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS).
SPECULOOS will carry out a photometric
survey to look for Earth-sized planets
transiting the brightest southern ultra-
cool stars. The SPECULOOS observing
facility consists of four 1-metre robotic
telescopes equipped with CCD cameras
operating in the very-near-infrared. All four
domes and three of the four telescopes
were successfully installed in 2017 and
remote operation has started.
La Silla Observatory
La Silla Observatory continued to operate
successfully according to its streamlined
operations model. The La Silla 2010+
model supports the continued operation
of the ESO 3.6-metre telescope with
HARPS and the NTT with the Son of
ISAAC (SOFI) instrument, EFOSC2 and
visitor instruments.
Following a call for new instruments in
2014, the medium-resolution (R = 5000)
optical and near-infrared (0.4 – 1.8 μm)
spectrograph Son Of X-Shooter (SOXS)
was selected as the future workhorse
instrument at the NTT. SOXS particularly
addresses the needs of the time-domain
research community. In addition, the high-
speed, triple-beam imager ULTRACAM
was offered for up to 25% of the available
time on the NTT in exchange for cash
contributions towards NTT operations
and for community access (up to 5% of
the time on the NTT). The Near Infra Red
Planet Searcher (NIRPS) project will
become the “red arm of HARPS” on the
ESO 3.6-metre telescope, creating the
most powerful optical to near-infrared
precision radial-velocity machine in the
southern hemisphere.
Whilst agreements were signed for the
NIRPS and ULTRACAM instruments,
negotiations with the SOXS consortium
are still continuing in parallel to the instru-
ment development. ULTRACAM is already
operating at the NTT visitor focus, the
NIRPS and SOXS instruments are expect-
ed to arrive in La Silla in 2019 and 2020,
respectively. NIRPS will be integrated
with HARPS and SOXS will replace SOFI
and EFOSC2 on the NTT. This new
instrument complement for La Silla pro-
vides exciting new prospects for the
La Silla Observatory into the mid-2020s
and has triggered the development of
plans for the extension of the lifetime of
the observatory’s infrastructure and its
operation model that this implies.
La Silla further continued to support
­scientific projects at other hosted tele-
scopes: the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre tele-
scope; the Danish 1.54-metre telescope
(Niels Bohr Institute of Copenhagen
­University, ­Denmark, and the Astro­
nomical Institute of the Academy of Sci-
ences of the Czech Republic); the Swiss
1.2-metre Leonhard Euler Telescope
(Observatoire de Genève); the Rapid Eye
Mount (REM; Italian National Institute for
Astrophysics); the Télescope à Action
Rapide pour les Objets Transitoires-
South (TAROT-S; Centre National de
la Recherche Scientifique, France);
TRAPPIST (Université de Liège) and the
ESO 1-metre telescope (Universidad
Católica del Norte in col­laboration with
the Pontificia Universidad Católica de
Chile).
The Multi-site All-Sky CAmeRA
(­MASCARA) project of the Leiden Obser-
vatory completed construction and start-
ed operation during the year. This small
planet hunter takes repeated measure-
ments of the brightness of thousands of
stars with its five off-the-shelf digital
­cameras and lenses. The main purpose
of MASCARA is to find exoplanets around
the brightest stars in the sky — currently
not probed by either space or ground-
P. Horálek/ESO
ULTRACAM is an ultra fast camera capable of cap-
turing some of the most rapid, transient astronomical
events.
ESO/Emmanuela Rimbaud
The three planet-hunting telescopes of the ExTrA
project.
based surveys — by searching for the
periodic dimming of a star’s light as a
planet crosses the stellar disc. The
­northern MASCARA station at La Palma
in the Canary Islands has operated
since early 2015. In 2017, it detected its
first two “hot Jupiters” — large planets
that are physically similar to Jupiter but
that orbit very close to their parent star
as indicated by short orbital periods
of only a few hours, resulting in high
­surface temperatures. The prospects
for its La Silla counterpart are similarly
exciting.
ESO/G. J. Talens
The MASCARA planet-hunting system at La Silla.
APEX
APEX continued to operate its 12-metre
antenna and its suite of heterodyne
and bolometer facility instruments and
visitor instruments in a quasi-continuous
24-hour operation mode, which maxim­
ises the exploitation of the exceptional
conditions available at Chajnantor. In
2017, a total of 180 days and nights were
scheduled for science observations with
APEX out of which 158 could be used.
This repre­sented more than 3285 hours
of on-sky science time up to 25 Septem-
ber, when science operations were sus-
pended to upgrade the antenna, instru-
ments and infrastructure. These activities
are in preparation for the extension of
the APEX operation agreement between
2018 and 2022.
The APEX project is a partnership
between the Max-Planck-Institut für
­Radioastronomie (MPIfR, Bonn, Germany,
50% share), ESO (27% share) and the
A new telescope project by the Institut Onsala Space Observatory (OSO, Sweden,
de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de 23% share). After ten years of science
Grenoble (IPAG, France), called Exo­ operations APEX has produced over 600
planets in Transit and their Atmospheres science papers and over 16 000 citations,
(ExTrA) completed construction in 2017 and remains a major catalyst to engage
and science operations are expected to the ESO user community in submillimetre
start in early 2018 for a period of five ­science. The instrumental capabilities
years. Hosting agreements for two new are highly complementary with those of
telescope projects, BlackGEM (Radboud ALMA, thanks to its wide-field bolometer
University, Nijmegen and University of arrays, state-of-the-art heterodyne receiv-
Leuven) and the Test-Bed Telescope ers and flexible observing model that
(TBT; ESA) have been signed and con- allows optimal use of the best weather
struction is expected to start in the com- conditions at Chajnantor.
ing year.
ESO Annual Report 2017 43
Given the continued success of the pro-
ject, the three APEX partners agreed
to extend the APEX project for five years
from the beginning of 2018 until the end
of 2022. On 5 May 2017 a new APEX
agreement was signed, establishing a
total additional investment of 18.5 million
euros over the extension period under
revised partner shares of 55% for MPIfR,
32% for ESO, and 13% for OSO as of
2018. The agreed investments include
major upgrades of the antenna and the
facility instrumentation.

One key requirement for APEX operation

during the extension period up to 2022
was to relocate all science operation
activities to the base at Sequitor and to
cease science operation from Chajnantor.
The remote science operation model
was commissioned at the beginning of
the year and regular operation started
with the new observing season on 3 April
2017. The successful observing season
had, however, to be shortened by three
months to allow for the upgrade of the
antenna and the infrastructure. By the
end of the year, the company responsi-
ble for the antenna upgrade (VERTEX
Antennentechnik GmbH, Germany) had
replaced most of the aluminium panels
that form the surface of the main reflector
with new high-precision panels. The
­re-commissioning of the antenna and
instruments is planned for the first quarter
of 2018.

At the beginning of the year the APEX

operation team noticed an unexplained
continuous loss of diesel fuel from the
APEX power station at Chajnantor and
initiated a thorough investigation, which
revealed a leak in the underground fuel
line between diesel tank and generator
that had deposited several thousand
litres of diesel fuel into the ground near
the power station. After the leak was
repaired in early June the team’s focus
shifted towards locating and removing
the diesel-contaminated soil. With the
help of external experts, a decontamina-
tion strategy and plan were defined and
are being implemented in parallel with
the ongoing antenna upgrade activities
at the high site.

The APEX telescope in the snow-covered C

­ hajnantor
landscape.

44 ESO Annual Report 2017

 Carlos A. Durán/ESO

ESO Annual Report 2017 45

F. Millour/ESO
The Laser Guide Star Facility at the VLT.
Data Management and Operations
The Data Management and Operations
Division is responsible for off-site opera-
tions and user support for the LPO. Inte-
grated end-to-end operations enables
the ESO com­munity to use its facilities
efficiently and to achieve a high scientific
return. New instruments are steadily inte-
grated into routine operations. The data
obtained using ESO instruments constitute
a valuable scientific resource and the ESO
­Science Archive Facility provides seam-
less access to its holdings. In 2017 sig­
nificant improvements were made in the
data-flow system to prepare for integrat-
ed VLT and ELT science operations, fol-
lowing a coherent development roadmap.
User Support
The User Support Department provides
support to users of ESO’s ­Paranal Obser-
vatory, assists the Science Operations
Team at the Observatory in the efficient
execution of Service Mode observations,
defines user requirements and oversees
the development and implementation of
front-end observation tools. The depart-
ment is also responsible for the ESO
Users Committee (UC), and for the organ-
isation of travel for astronomers visiting
the observatory sites in Chile.
Support for the preparation of Phase 2
observations is a recurring core activity,
and in 2017, the department assisted
­successful PIs with preparing their Service
Mode observations for ­Periods 99 and
100, which had Phase 2 submission dead-
lines in February and August, respectively.
Over the course of the year, Phase 2 and
follow-up support was delivered for 937
Overall, how satisfied are you with the support provided by the
ESO User Support Department?
100%
75%
50%
25%
0%
Mar 2014 Mar 2015 Sep 2015 Sep 2016 Sep 2017
48 ESO Annual Report 2017
Service Mode runs, counting runs sched-
uled within the two observing periods
as well as Director’s Discretionary Time
runs (which are approved throughout the
year). In addition, the Visiting Astronomer
Travel Office within department organised
travel for visiting astronomers for 593 runs.
In total, the number of runs supported
in both Service and Visitor Modes was
comparable to that of previous years.
Staff in the User Support Department
worked with colleagues across all direc-
torates, contributing to a range of pro-
jects, some of which are providing opera-
tional improvements while others are
developing new observational facilities.
On the instrumentation side, this included
participation in the commissioning and
science verification of the AOF modes of
MUSE and HAWK-I. In addition, there
were activities related to the commission-
ing and consolidation of GRAVITY opera-
tions, preparations for ESPRESSO, and
the review and development of plans for
the operations support of the 4-metre
Multi-Object Spectrograph Telescope
(4MOST). Two new dataflow projects led
by a project scientist from the User Sup-
port Department were initiated, involving
the evolution of exposure time calculators
and operations m ­ etrics. The User Sup-
port Department and the Directorate of
Administration also worked together on
integrating the Visiting Astronomer Travel
workflows into ESO’s ERP database.
In order to maintain efficient operation
over 100 observing periods, while regu-
larly adding new instruments and facilities,
it is necessary to adapt tools and proce-
dures. For the preparation of Visitor Mode
Global user satisfaction with tool functions provided
100%
Very satisfied
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied 75%
Very dissatisfied
50%
25%
0%
Mar 2014 Mar 2015 Sep 2015 Sep 2016 Sep 2017
observations, a new web-based Phase 2
tool called “p2” and an updated visitor
observing tool have been successfully
deployed. The definition, implementation
and testing of additional functionalities for
the Service Mode version of p2 required
a new release of this tool for Period 101
Phase 2 observations using UT2 and
Survey Telescopes in December 2017. As
well as developing updated Phase 2 tools,
it is also necessary to address the obso-
lescence of older instrument-specific ob­­
serving tools. The department developed
installation packages for different operat-
ing systems and implemented them in
the common ESO software repository
that was originally developed for pipeline
releases. Feedback is gathered annually
via a questionnaire for Service Mode
users on the effectiveness of the user
support pro­vided, and the 2017 survey
confirmed the continued high level of user
satisfaction.
Back-End Operations
ESO’s mission includes providing the best
science data for the astronomical com-
munity. Data generated directly by the
telescopes, so-called “raw data”, cannot
be used immediately for scientific pur-
poses, as they first have to be processed
and calibrated. A continuing challenge for
the exploitation of data from ESO’s instru-
Some results from the 2017 Service Mode user
­s atisfaction survey. The survey gathers user feed-
back on the level of support provided as well as
­s atisfaction with Phase 2 tools. Reports from 2012
to 2017 are available online at: http://www.eso.org/
sci/observing/phase2/PostObservation/UserFeed-
back.html
Very satisfied
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
No opinion
 5000 100%
Number of unique users of archival data

Percentage of refereed papers

3750 75%

2500 50%

1250 25%

0 0%
1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2017
25

21

03
.1
.1

.2

.2
.0

Year
2.
8.

.
1.
04
04

.11
04

09
08
.1

.0
.0

.
.

17
.
.

-
12

17
15
14
11

15

16
16

Only archive data Archive + new data No archive data

20
20

20
20
20
20

20

20
20

Time Left panel: The growth of the astronomical commu-

Processed and calibrated data Raw data
ments arises from the steady increase in thorough review of its functionalities. This
data volume and complexity, which can led to the development of a new web
make this processing challenging. interface for the interactive discovery of
the archive content. It features graphical
ESO addresses this in two ways. First, by views of the data, adaptive aggregations
providing users with tools to process and previews to guide users through
and calibrate data to science-grade levels. the complexity of the archive content so
Second, by publishing processed and they can identify datasets suitable for
calibrated data that is already at science their needs.
grade and thus ready for scientific exploi-
tation. This alleviates the need for users Astronomy is entering an era in which
to process data and expedites scientific the answers to the most exciting science
analysis. questions come from combining data
across wavelengths, facilities and mes-
In addition to providing newly acquired sengers (for example, optical observations
data to those astronomers who were with detections of gravitational waves or
awarded telescope time, ESO develops elementary particles like neutrinos or
and operates science archives. These high-energy nuclei). In recognition of this
store data and make them available for fact, we have broadened access to ESO’s
scientific exploitation by the wider com- data by adopting Virtual Observatory
munity, often for science cases that ­protocols. They enable complex queries
are vastly different from those for which to be carried out and provide direct
they were originally acquired. access to data across multiple archives.
nity using ESO archival data, showing only unique
users. The start date of July 2011 marks the publi­
cation of the first processed data, and the number of
users of raw data is normalised to that date. Right
panel: The contribution of data from the ESO science
archive to refereed papers using VLT data as a func-
tion of time.
Adopting these standards ensures the
accessibility of ESO data, particularly in
the wider context of global open-access
data.
Data flow projects
Data flow applications and end-to-end
services for the VLT and ELT encompass
the proposal submission system (Phase 1),
observation specification and execution
(Phase 2), archiving and retrieval of raw
frames, data reduction, the ingestion of
data products including catalogues
(Phase 3), and the subsequent analysis
and publication. The data flow services
ESO provides ensure a high operational

The base of archival raw, processed and

calibrated data has continued to steadily
expand over the years and it now serves
approximately 5000 users, a large frac-
tion of the worldwide professional astro-
nomical community (the IAU has just over
12 500 members). Almost 30% of the
­scientific output from ESO telescopes, as
measured by publications in refereed
journals, involves archival data.
Definition of an observ-
ing run with instrument-
The sustained success of the science specific constraints in
archive over the years has prompted a the new Phase 1 tool.

ESO Annual Report 2017 49


efficiency, and value for the ESO user
community. In 2017, a number of software
solutions were updated and new ones
developed, some examples of which are
provided below.
The inception of the new Phase 1 pro-
posal handling project called “p1” faced
two major challenges in 2017: how to
specify complex constraints and flexible
requirements at key points of the sub­
mission cycle; and the conceptual inte-
gration of the new system with existing
Phase 2 operations (including an inter-
face with exposure time calculators). In
order to provide users with a seamless
experience throughout Phases 1 and 2,
we carried out an in-depth analysis of
requirements and prototyped a number
of options. In the course of this harmo­
nisation, web user interface design
guidelines were produced, so that they
could be reviewed and approved by the
key stakeholders. In November 2017, a
requirements readiness review was held
and implementation of p1 is underway.
In April 2017, the web-based obser-
vation preparation application (p2) and
its accompanying Phase 2 application
50 ESO Annual Report 2017
­ rogramming interface (API) were
p cal progressive survey standard (HIPS);
released, enabling Visitor Mode obser­
vations to be specified for all VLT instru-
ments. Full Service Mode support for all
UT2 and survey instruments, including
the definition of scheduling constraints
(to better define observing strategies),
became operational in December 2017.
It is now possible to define Observing
Blocks (OBs), and detailed scheduling
constraints with a web browser, as well
as with tailored user-defined scripts
that have been optimised for a particular
observational strategy. Visitor Mode exe-
cution sequences can be defined and
dynamically reprioritised throughout the
observing period and changes show
up almost in real time on Paranal. A com-
prehensive tutorial on how to programme
OBs in Python was made available at
https://www.eso.org/copdemo. The
accompanying ESO internal observing
tools for OB review and execution were
also updated.
In its first release, the Archive Services
Project aims to: provide previews of
images and spectra as part of an archive
search and to enable astronomical survey
data to be visualised using the hierarchi-
New ESO Archive Science Portal:
a snapshot of the web interface.
provide programmatic access to the ESO
Science Archive Facility using the Interna-
tional Virtual Observatory Alliance’s Table
Access Protocol, Simple Spectral Access
Protocol and Data Link Protocol; and pro-
vide a modern web interface for archive
searches, incremental search refinement
and interactive archive content explora-
tion (Figure 5). After an analysis of the
detailed requirements, the project imple-
mentation plan was produced and
approved in July. The implementation of
all features progressed very well through-
out the year and the first operational
release is planned for March 2018.
Further data flow activities in 2017
­included: the release of the unified target
acquisition preparation tool for all ESO
instruments (GuideCamTool version 2.1),
which provides full support for the adap-
tive optics modes of MUSE; the release
of Reflex 2.8 with various new features
and improvements; live correlation plots
in the ambient site monitor (ASM); and
the extension of the Night Log Tool as
well as the Phase 1 long-term scheduling
software (TaToo) and the observing tool
to support ESPRESSO’s 1-UT mode.
ESO/ESPRESSO team

Spectrum obtained during ESPRESSO’s first light.

ESO Annual Report 2017 51

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

One of ALMA’s 66 antennas at sunset.

52 ESO Annual Report 2017

ALMA

ALMA is a large interferometer for radio

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
wavelengths ranging from 0.3 to 9.6 milli-
metres. It was constructed between 1999
and 2014 via an international collabora-
tion between Europe, North America and
East Asia in cooperation with the Republic
of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory
(JAO) comprises 66 high-precision anten-
nas with state-of-the-art receivers located
on the Chajnantor Plateau, 5000 metres
above sea level in the district of San Pedro
de Atacama in the Chilean Andes. The
12-metre diameter antennas can be
­configured to encompass baselines rang-
ing from 15 metres to 16 kilometres. A
resolution of 0.005 arcseconds can be
achieved at the highest frequencies; this
is a factor of ten higher than that possible
with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Tele-
scope at optical wavelengths.

Joint ALMA Observatory

ALMA operations and science
During Cycle 4 in 2017, ALMA continued
to prioritise data processing and delivery
throughput, improving both the quality
and timeliness of the data products. The
scope of the so-called standard modes,
which qualify for the larger portion of
the total available observing time, was
expanded to include long baselines. This
allows the scientific community to apply
for more high-resolution observations
and enables large programmes at long
baselines.
During Cycle 4, the typical antenna num-
bers per execution and the productive
time available on sky expanded. Through
optimisation, 92.5% of 12-metre array
observations used at least 40 antennas,
with typical observations using 43. How-
black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.
These Earth-sized telescopes are made
possible by international collaborations
involving independent radio telescopes.
The GMVA will derive the properties of
the accretion and outflow in the immediate
surroundings of the Galactic Centre, while
the EHT will aim to image the shadow
of the black hole’s event horizon for the
first time.
The call for proposals for Cycle 5 estab-
lished new records for the number of
­proposals received and hours requested,
which led to an oversubscription factor
of 4, and even higher for the European
applications (see p. 25 for more details).
In preparation for Cycle 6, significant
enhancements were achieved regarding
the high-frequency performance of
Aerial view of the Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s
­Atacama desert, which is host to ALMA’s 66 high-
precision antennas.
ALMA. The configuration schedule
includes more compact configurations
during the s­ outhern winter, allowing
observations during the driest weather at
baselines not dominated by atmospheric
turbulence. ALMA was also upgraded to
utilise all the available bandwidth for the
two highest-frequency bands, effectively
doubling the bandwidth over previous
cycles. Finally, the antenna surfaces,
which had been optimised for tempera-
tures around 0 degrees Celsius, were
modified to optimise their performance at
ALMA antennas during a snowstorm on the
­Chajnantor Plateau.
J. C. Rojas/ESO

ever, there were also some significant

challenges. Approximately 12% of the
time allocation during the year was lost
to two major snowstorms in May and
June. It took six weeks to clear the anten-
nas for operations, which delayed the
planned reconfiguration effort. This expe-
rience dramatically exposed the difficulty
of observing in extended configurations
during the winter.

ALMA joined the GMVA and the EHT for

the first time, for a detailed study of —
among other things — the supermassive

ESO Annual Report 2017 53

Icare
ICARE 2017 ceremony where ALMA received an
award for its contribution to supporting growth in
Chile.
–10 degrees Celsius, the temperature
at which most high-frequency weather
occurs.
Looking towards the future, ALMA gath-
ered input from several public and advi-
sory forums so as to update the science
goals for the use of the ALMA Develop-
ment Fund over the next 10 –15 years.
ALMA will soon begin to map out a coor-
dinated phase of upgrades to achieve
those goals. The new science goals and
top technical directions will be made
public in 2018.
ALMA: Beyond science
In 2017, ALMA received two Chilean
awards, the Avonni award from the
ForoInnovación foundation to “Sounds
of the Universe” (awarded for musical
creations based on ALMA observations),
and another from the Chilean business
organisation ICARE for its contribution
to business development through excel-
lence and international collaboration.
The global Astronomical Data Analysis
Software & Systems (ADASS) conference
was held in Chile for the first time; it
was organised by ALMA, ESO and the
Universidad Técnica Federico Santa
María (UTFSM) and provided a show-
case for the broader impact of observa-
tories in Chile.
54 ESO Annual Report 2017
Finally, the outstanding global interest
generated by ALMA resulted in almost
7000 visitors — with over 20 nationalities
— to the site during 2017; more than half
of these were public visits. ALMA’s profile
was further enhanced through 38 media
visits, 52 educational visits, and seven
artistic visits, bringing ALMA to the atten-
tion of the public worldwide.
New ALMA Director elected
In July 2017, the international governing
board of ALMA selected Sean Dougherty
as the new ALMA Director. Sean has been
Director at the Dominion Radio Astrophys-
ical Observatory and Programme Director
for the radio astronomy programme for
the National Research Council in Canada
since 2008. He has actively participated
in Canada’s contributions to many radio
astronomy facilities in the world, and has
also col­laborated on many projects with
the NRAO, Square Kilometre Array (SKA),
National Science Foundation (NSF), and
several other scientific organisations,
including ALMA.
Enhanced living conditions at the
ALMA site
Many ALMA staff spend nearly half of
the year living on site, so it is essential to
have a comfortable place for them to
J. Pinto – ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
The new ALMA Director Sean Dougherty.
sleep and eat with appropriate recrea-
tion facilities where staff members can
gather. The staff moved into the new
Residencia, which was delivered by ESO,
in early August 2017, marking a monu-
mental milestone for the enhancement of
the l­iving conditions at the site. The main
building, which includes a pool and a
gym, opened for activities during 2017.
The dining area will be opened for use by
early 2018.
An indoor sports facility (“multicancha”)
at the ALMA Operation Support Facility
was donated by the North American
­partner, NSF, with NRAO, via a one-off
funding contribution. The new building
should be delivered by mid-2019, and
it will represent one of the most antici­
pated enhancements of the onsite living
conditions.
European ALMA Support Centre
The ESO ALMA Support Centre (EASC)
is ESO’s offsite operations unit for ALMA
and a division in the Directorate of Oper­
ations. It is one of the three ALMA sup-
port centres, based at the three ALMA
Executives in Europe, North America and
East Asia, which support the Joint ALMA
Observatory (JAO) and ALMA onsite
operation. EASC comprises the ALMA
Regional Centre (ARC), ALMA offsite
hardware and software maintenance and

P. Carrillo- ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
development support, and ALMA science
and outreach.
The high-level scientific representation
and scientific guidance of the European
ALMA project are provided by the Euro-
pean Programme Scientist, who collabo-
rates closely with the VLT and ELT Pro-
gramme Scientists to exploit the scientific
synergies with ESO’s other major pro-
grammes. EASC is the face of ALMA for
the European scientific community and
the international ALMA partners for ALMA
operations. EASC plays an important
part in ALMA’s success, both in terms of
its performance as a scientific instrument
and for ESO as a partner in the ALMA
project. Wolfgang Wild, who had been
leading the ALMA efforts at ESO for a
decade, departed in mid-2017 to become
Above: The ALMA
­Residencia in the
moonlight.
Left: The new ALMA
Residencia handover
celebration was attend-
ed by the ALMA Board
and the Directors of
the three executives —
ESO, NAOJ and NRAO.
CTA Project Manager. Leonardo Testi
was recruited to take over the responsi-
bility as Head of EASC from 1 January
2018.
The ALMA Regional Centre in Europe
The ARC provides the interface between
the European user community and the
ALMA Observatory in Chile. The ARC
department is part of a distributed net-
work of ARC nodes, which are located in
the Czech Republic, France, Germany,
Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the
United Kingdom, and also includes a
centre of expertise in P
­ ortugal. This net-
work continues to be a very successful
model for providing user support to Euro-
pean users; the nodes have strong ties
with the user community and are based
within observatories and universities
with active research environments. In
addition to providing face-to-face user
support, the ARC nodes organise events
and provide scientists who serve as
points of contact for ALMA observing
programmes. These scientists are incor-
porated in the quality assurance proce-
dure and are also involved in ALMA com-
missioning activities and work to enhance
ALMA’s capabilities.
The central coordinating ARC is a depart-
ment of EASC and works closely with
the ALMA Observatory. Together with the
other ALMA executives, the ARC depart-
ment forms an integral part of the science
operations team. It also hosts subsystem
scientists, who provide scientific guid-
ance in the development of several key
software components. The ARC also
contributes to astronomer-on-duty shifts
at the ALMA site in Chile.
In 2017, there was a major upgrade of
the global quality assurance and data
reduction workflow at ALMA. The ARC
played a significant role in designing and
implementing this new workflow, which
was designed to make the PI data flow
to end-users faster and more efficient.
The ARC department started to execute
the imaging pipeline for ESO-supported
projects in addition to the calibration
pipeline that was already in use. By the
end of 2017, about 80% of the datasets
were pipeline-calibrated and 60% were
pipeline-imaged.
The ARC supported the call for proposals
and proposal submission processes for
Cycle 5, which resulted in 695 observing
projects being submitted by users in the
ESO Member States. Together with the
other regions, these projects were com-
peting for 4000 hours of observing time
on the main array and 3000 hours on the
7-metre array. After the completion of the
proposal review process in July, ALMA
Contact Scientists — mostly at the ARC
nodes — and staff in the ARC’s Phase 2
group assisted with adding these pro-
jects to the observing queue. In total, 290
Cycle 5 projects (including three Large
Projects) are scheduled for observing. In
addition to the above activities, the ARC
supported an extra call for proposals for
the 7-metre array.
ESO Annual Report 2017 55
Carlos Padilla – AUI/NRAO

Carlos Padilla – AUI/NRAO

The ALMA front-end laboratory at the OSF. The ALMA correlator at the Array Operations Site.

ALMA Technical Team
The ALMA Technical Team (ATT) in EASC
is responsible for offsite technical support
and hardware development projects. In
2017, the ATT provided support, specific
knowledge and assistance to the ALMA
Observatory in the areas of antennas,
antenna transporters, front ends, calibra-
tion devices, water vapour radiometers,
the back end, the correlator, and site
infrastructure (in particular the antenna
stations and the power generation and
distribution system). In addition, ATT staff
manage the hardware development pro-
jects (currently for Band 5) and contribute
to development studies.
The ATT at ESO is the European part of
the ALMA-wide Integrated Engineering
Team, IET (also called IET-EU). It has
called by the ALMA board and held at
the Operations Support Facility (OSF)
in September.
– In the front end, a reliability issue with
the cryogenic cold heads detected by
JAO in 2016 was addressed, and an
onsite mission was conducted to review
the audit of the JAO maintenance facili-
ties and procedures performed by the
manufacturer of the cold heads.
– A 3-year contract for Tier 3 maintenance
and the obsolescence recovery pro-
gramme of the Water Vapour Radiome-
ter was awarded. Additional contracts
placed by the ATT in Europe were for
the offsite maintenance of digitisers,
digitiser clocks and the correlator tuna-
ble filters, and for the offsite mainte-
nance of the Band 5 Bias Modules and
Cartridge Power Distribution System
(CPDS) cards.
– Follow-up and progress meetings of
the action items set at the transporter
review were organised by the ATT
­jointly with JAO.
– In the power generation and distribution
area, technical and procurement sup-
port was provided as necessary.
ALMA Computing
The ALMA Computing Team at EASC,
including partner institutes in Europe,
develops and maintains ALMA software
subsystems in collaboration with similarly
sized teams in East Asia, North America
and Chile. The software tools for prepar-
S. Otárola – ALMA (NRAO / ESO / NAOJ)

­provided remote (offsite) maintenance

and on-site support for the ESO deliver­
ables throughout 2017, including the
­following:
– In the antenna area, Tier 3 maintenance
tasks were taken care of, including
missions to the site as necessary. A
maintenance script for the remote auto-
lubrication of the hexapod struts was
developed and distributed to JAO for
use. The maintenance contract for the
Antenna Control Unit Software was
awarded. A programme to upgrade the
obsolete Antenna Drive system elec-
tronics was initiated. An external ALMA
Antenna Maintenance Review was

Otto, one of the two transporters used by ALMA to

move its antennas across the Chajnantor Plateau.

56 ESO Annual Report 2017


Willem Jan Vreeling (SRON)
Oscar Mattsson
L. Testi
ing observing projects and operating
the antenna array are mature and stable.
They have undergone regular maintenance
and improvements, as well as updates
to support additional observing modes.
The development focus has very much
been on numerous software tools to
­support the automated data reduction
and imaging pipeline, which has entered
into routine operation. The shift from a
JAO-centric data processing model to
a distributed one, including the three
ARCs, has made it necessary to redefine
the entire post-observation workflow.
This included major updates to many
­distributed components, ranging from
The cold cartridge
assembly production
team at NOVA (including
Pavel Yagoubov from
ESO).
The cold cartridge
assembly production
team at GARD.
ALMA Band 5 receiver
cold ­c artridge assembly
at the OSF, ready for
integration into an ALMA
Front End.
data quality assurance and archive inter-
faces to integrated reporting tools.
Another important change in 2017 was
the transition of the Telescope Calibra-
tion subsystem from the Institut de
­Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM;
France) to ESO. This subsystem is
responsible for performing near-real-time
calibrations for immediate feedback to
the control software, using observing
data as well as environmental information.
The ALMA Computing Team was fully
staffed for most of the year, using a
­combination of ESO staff, contractors
and staff from external science institutes.
ALMA development
The ALMA partnership plans continuous
upgrades and the development of new
software, front ends (for example, addi-
tional receiver bands) and other hardware
or system capabilities during the opera-
tions phase. In 2017, two projects were
(co-)funded by ESO: completing the pro-
duction of the Band 5 cartridges; and the
initial development of the ALMA Integrated
Alarm System.
In 2017 the production of the Band 5
receivers was completed. The cold car-
tridge assemblies were designed and
produced by a European consortium of
the Netherlands Research School for
Astronomy (NOVA) and the Group for
Advanced Receiver Development (GARD)
at Chalmers University in Sweden. The
warm cartridge assemblies were deliv-
ered by NRAO. ESO is also responsible
for supplying all of the required auxiliary
equipment for Band 5 receivers.
The integration of Band 5 cartridges into
front ends and ALMA antennas, which
began in May 2015, is progressing and is
expected to be completed by March 2018.
Science verification observations were
performed with the Band 5 receivers in
2016; this new capability was offered for
observations as part of the Cycle 5 ALMA
Call for Proposals in 2017 and the first
datasets were acquired with the 7-metre
dishes of the Atacama Compact Array on
25 December 2017. Thanks to careful end-
to-end testing, observations went very
smoothly and the dataset was ready to be
released to the PI in early January 2018.
The detailed design of the ALMA Inte­
grated Alarm System was completed and
successfully reviewed. The actual devel-
opment of the software system is pro-
gressing in collaboration with INRIA Chile
and with the CTA observatory, which is also
interested in developing a similar system.
Development studies
Major progress was achieved on various
aspects of the ESO ALMA upgrade stud-
ies in 2017.
Solar observing modes: The study was
successfully completed in 2017, and the
ESO Annual Report 2017 57

final report was published as an ALMA
memo and as a Messenger article. Dis-
cussions regarding the possibility of
investigating the potential of high-cadence
solar imaging were also held, leading
to the finalisation of an agreement for a
potential study starting in 2018.
Data analysis software: The study aimed
at delivering the interoperability of the
Common Astronomy Software Applica-
tions (CASA) software packages eXtended
CASA Line Analysis Software Suite
(XCLASS) and Adaptable Radiative Trans-
fer Innovations for Submillimetre Tele-
scopes (ARTIST) was completed and
reviewed. Some components exceeded
the original goals and the software is
now fully available at: https://xclass.astro.
uni-koeln.de/.
Next generation digitisers: In a study led
by the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de
Bordeaux at the University of Bordeaux a
new generation of digitisers for ALMA
are being designed and tested. The first
phase of this study was successfully com-
pleted and reviewed. The study is now
entering the phase of detailed design of
the components required to extend the
bandwidth of the ALMA system.
Band 2 – 3 prototype: In 2017, ESO con­
tinued to support development studies
on the science case and technical feasi-
bility of a receiver covering Bands 2 and 3
(67 – 116 GHz, Band 2+3) with 16 GHz
bandwidth per polarisation. The ongoing
study, which was started in 2014, is being
carried out by a consortium of several
European institutes, ESO, Universidad de
Chile and NAOJ. A successful PDR was
held in G­ arching at the end of November
58 ESO Annual Report 2017
Participants at the
Band 5 science
workshop, held at
ESO’s Headquarters
in Garching.
2017, where the receiver prototype design
was reviewed with a very positive out-
come. The full test of the prototype optical
components (feed horn, lens and Ortho-
Mode Transducer) demonstrated that
such a system would meet all ALMA
requirements for the optics over the wider
band with no compromises in performance
over a design optimised for Band 2.
Test results for monolithic microwave inte-
grated circuit (MMIC) amplifiers designed
by the University of Manchester in collab-
oration with the Cahill Radio Astronomy
Lab (USA), and using the Northrop Grum-
man Corporation 30-nm gate length pro-
cess are extremely promising, with noise
temperatures measured at less than 28 K
over more than 80% of the wide band
and little dependence on frequency. There
is also a commercial alternative, from the
Low Noise Factory (Sweden), with com-
parable performance. The use of materials
different from high-density polyethylene
(HDPE) for warm lenses was also investi-
gated in order to improve the receiver
performance. A s­ ilicon lens was produced
and tested with encouraging results, lead-
ing to the preparation of a specific devel-
opment project to optimise the warm
lenses for ALMA low frequency receivers.
Several other studies were also initiated
in 2017 as a result of the 2016 Call for
Studies, including the investigation of the
future evolution of the ALMA Observing
Tool, several developments in the area of
receiver upgrades, and improvements in
the archive content by reprocessing past
ALMA Cycles.
ALMA antennas under the Milky Way.
 D. Kordan/ESO

ESO Annual Report 2017 59

ESO/A. Ghizzi Panizza (www.albertoghizzipanizza.com)
Programmes

Without a doubt, the highlight for the
ELT programme was the approval by
the ESO Council that the ELT will be
delivered with the full primary mirror.
In the Paranal Instrumentation pro-
gramme, a plethora of instruments are
at various stages of integration and
commissioning on Paranal including:
– GRAVITY started to observe the
Galactic Centre in parallel with both
its commissioning programme and
routine off-axis mode observations.
– AOF commissioning has continued
in spectacular form, leading to the
full qualification and validation of
the wide-field mode and the ground-
layer adaptive optics mode.
– ESPRESSO was granted Provisional
Acceptance Europe (PAE) in August
2017 and first light was obtained in
December with one UT, immediately
demonstrating the huge gain from
moving to an 8-metre telescope.
– MATISSE passed PAE in September
and has been re-integrated into the
VLTI laboratory on Paranal.
The Technology Development Pro-
gramme made substantial progress
on the development of key adaptive
optics components for the ELT. Work
also continued on the New Earths in
the Alpha Centauri Region (NEAR)
experiment to search for habitable
planets around Alpha Centauri. Mean-
while, development continues in a
number of important areas, including
the new detector test system the Facil-
ity for Infrared Array Testing (FIAT),
laser guide stars, high-order deforma-
ble mirrors, low-noise amplifiers for
ALMA, high contrast techniques and
infrared avalanche detectors.
The inside of an 8.2-metre Unit Telescope.
Instrumentation for the La Silla Paranal
­­
Observatory
Paranal instrument commissioning
2017 marked a very intense year for
the Paranal Instrumentation Programme.
GRAVITY is a second-generation VLTI
instrument that combines signals from
four telescopes in the K-band and enables
spectroscopic imaging. It will measure the
astrometric separations of objects locat-
ed within the 2-arcsecond field of view
of the VLTI with a precision of 10 micro-
arcseconds. In 2017, the commissioning
of the astrometric mode of GRAVITY con-
tinued, together with regular operations
of the instrument with the Coudé Infrared
Adaptive Optics (CIAO) off-axis mode, the
CIAO on-axis mode having already been
commissioned. A detailed description of
commissioning and the first observations,
including Science Verification and Galactic
Centre ob­servations, was published in
the December issue of The Messenger
(Volume 170).
Another second-generation instrument,
ESPRESSO, was granted PAE in August
2017. ESPRESSO is contained in a large
vacuum vessel for increased stability
and is equipped with a reference source
to characterise any instrumental drifts
simultaneously with science observations,
following the same concept as HARPS.
ESPRESSO can observe with any of the
UTs, or with all four UTs together (with a
collecting power equivalent to a 16-metre
telescope). For this purpose, the project
included the procurement and installation
of the four coudé trains from the UTs to
the coudé laboratory. All coudé trains
were commissioned in 2017. ESPRESSO
operations are running smoothly and the
instrument is being delivered with its own
pipeline and data analysis software. After
PAE, ESPRESSO was shipped and inte-
grated in the combined coudé labo­ratory.
PAE was awarded without the red cam-
era owing to its late delivery by the manu-
facturer, so it had to be integrated at
­Paranal. ESPRESSO successfully com-
pleted its first commissioning run, and first
light with one UT was obtained in Decem-
ber 2017. ESPRESSO includes several
tech­nical innovations for ESO, such as
the heavy use of optical anamorphism,
pupil slicing, the largest monolithic (9k × 9k)
detectors, and an LFC for extremely
accurate and precise calibrations.
The second generation VLTI instrument
MATISSE will provide closure-phase
imaging and spectroscopy at interfero-
metric resolution of a wide range of tar-
gets, including asteroids, young stellar
objects and AGN. The PAE process pro-
ceeded as planned in August and was
successfully concluded despite some limi-
tations due to the air-conditioning s­ ystem,
which damaged some of the detector
boards, making some of the final tests
challenging. PAE was granted in Septem-
ber, followed by instrument shipment
and re-integration of the two cryogenic
vessels (L–M- and N-bands respectively)
Artist’s impression showing how the light collected
by all four VLT Unit Telescopes is combined in the
ESPRESSO instrument, located under the VLT
platform.
ESO/L. Calçada
ESO Annual Report 2017 61
in the New Integration Hall at Paranal. netic fields in low-mass objects. A cross-

ESO/R. Dorn
From the New Integration Hall, they disperser increases the simultaneous
were transported into the VLTI laboratory wavelength coverage by a factor of about
— which had been re-shaped to host ten, and three new HAWAII 2RG detectors
MATISSE. The vessels then had the nec- accommodate the new spectral format.
essary feeding optics installed and re- This general refurbishment will prolong
integrated with the warm optics, which the life of the instrument.
interfaces the vessels to the VLTI system.
The two cryostats were successfully All the components of the upgraded
cooled. The first fringes are planned for instrument, known as CRIRES+, were
February 2018, and the first commission- delivered to ESO Garching, where
ing run with the Auxiliary T
­ elescopes is they were integrated in 2017. The warm
expected in March. part (including the Multi-Application Cur-
vature Adaptive Optics (MACAO) unit)
was fully rebuilt and new optical compo-
Instrument upgrades nents with fresh coatings have been
ordered. The instrument went through a
X-shooter is a very popular instrument, total of three cooldowns; the first was
but for some time its atmospheric dis­ to test the function and the behaviour of The CRIRES+ slit unit.
persion compensators (ADCs) were
­inoperable because of mechanical insta- MATISSE, at the
MATISSE Project/Y. Bresson

­O bservatoire de la Côte
bilities. The project team made several
d’Azur in France, is
interventions to fix the four ADCs with being transported to
new drives and to recommission the Chile to be integrated
instrument. After the first intervention one into the VLTI.
of the systems behaved erratically and
had to be fixed. The project has now been
successfully completed and X-shooter
has been offered to the users with work-
ing ADCs.

A small second project that was finalised

in 2017 was the so-called “NACO sur­vival”
project. NACO was originally supposed
to be decommissioned after its removal
from UT4, but it was decided to keep
it in operation to continue the monitoring
of the Galactic Centre and to support
observations in 2017 and 2018. The re-
ESO/A. Glindemann

installation of NACO carried some risks

because of the critical state of three
major components: the detector systems;
the field selector; and the real-time com-
puter. Spares were procured and tested
for all components and one Aladdin
detector array from the CRyogenic high-
resolution InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph
(CRIRES), even if only partially compliant,
has been kept as an emergency spare
detector.

CRIRES is undergoing a major upgrade

that includes a new gas cell and an etalon
calibration system to achieve a radial
velocity precision of 2–3 m s –1, enabling
it to search for planets of super-Earth
masses in the habitable zones of M-dwarf
stars, and a novel polarimetric unit that MATISSE arriving at the
can be used to characterise stellar mag- VLTI laboratory.

62 ESO Annual Report 2017

the cryogenic system, the second includ- Left: Artist’s impression

STFC
of the MOONS instru-
ed the detectors, and the third produced
ment on the VLT.
the first cross-dispersed spectra in the
J–K-bands. The CRIRES+ PAE slipped
by about 6 months, and is now planned
for Q3 2018. This will be followed by its
­shipment to the VLT, where it will replace
VIMOS and be mounted on UT3.

Instruments in design and under

­construction

The Enhanced Resolution Imager and

Spectrograph (ERIS) will be a new
­adaptive-optics supported infrared instru-
ment for the J–M-bands (1–5 μm) at the Below: Integration of the
UT4 C ­ assegrain focus. The adaptive- 4MOST detector (left)
optics bonnette will feed both an infrared and the fully integrated
4MOST detector vessel
imager (NIX) and the upgraded SPec- (right).
trometer for Infrared Faint FIeld (SPIFFI)
of the SINFONI instrument. ERIS will use
ESO/J.-L. Lizon

the AOF deformable mirror and one of

its lasers to improve both the spatial reso-
lution and sky coverage compared to the
current NACO and SINFONI instruments.
The Final Design Review (FDR) took place
in May 2017 and was passed in October
after a few critical issues were resolved.
The project proposed adding two new
modes: low-­resolution spectroscopy with
the NIX camera system and a corono-
graphic mode. These were accepted for
implementation. The procurement of the
components is advancing and a readi-
ness meeting was held in November to
start the manufacturing, assembly, inte-
gration and testing (MAIT) phase for the
NIX camera. houses the fibre positioners, acquisition for both Galactic and extragalactic astro-
system and the metrology system for the physics and very high multiplex capa­
The Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared fibres; and the cryogenic spectrograph, bilities. An important milestone was
Spectrograph (MOONS) is a 0.8 to 1.8 μm which houses the spectrograph optics, achieved in 2017 when the consortium
multi-object spectrometer designed to volume-phase holographic gratings and had obtained sufficient funding to guar-
work at the Nasmyth focus of the VLT. The detectors. The two parts are connected antee the construction of the third (low-
instrument will have 1000 fibres patrol- by fibres. The FDR of the whole instru- resolution) spectrograph, so the baseline
ling a total field 25 arcminutes in diame- ment took place in March 2017 and the for the instrument is the full complement,
ter. There will be two spectral resolving critical action items were closed a few with 2400 fibres (1600 low resolution,
powers: R ~ 4000 spanning the full near- months later. Orders have now been 800 high resolution) available simultane-
infrared wavelength range and a higher- placed for all major items. The detector ously. The FDR for the long-lead items
resolution mode which gives R ~ 9000 in tender has also been finalised with the took place to allow the procurement of
the I-band window and R ~ 20 000 in a offer for the red-sensitive optical Charge major optical components which will
region of the H-band window. The lower- Coupled Devices (CCDs). require a long time for production and
resolution mode is optimised for measur- delivery. The detector vessels for the
ing galaxies with redshifts greater than 4MOST will be a world-class facility for 10 large CCDs are being integrated —
one and the higher-resolution mode is fibre-fed multi-object spectroscopy the first one is currently being tested and
optimised for stellar surveys. and will be installed on VISTA. Its unique will be delivered soon. The FDR for the
capabilities result from the combination rest of the systems is planned in Q2 2018.
MOONS has two main parts: the rotating of a large field of view, medium and high The objective is to install 4MOST on the
front end, which is at the focal plane and spectral resolutions in the visible range VISTA telescope in 2022.

ESO Annual Report 2017 63

Infrastructure projects

R. Bacon
AOF
The AOF made fundamental steps
towards completion in 2017. Almost one
commissioning slot per month has result-
ed in the full qualification and vali­dation
of the GALACSI/MUSE wide-field mode
and the GRAAL/HAWK-I ground layer
adaptive optics mode. After its re-integra-
tion in the New Integration Hall in Janu-
ary, GALACSI was installed on the tele-
scope in March and on-sky tests were
started. The adaptive optics correction
capa­bility was confirmed on sky but most
of the effort consisted of integrating the
system in the UT4 telescope environment
and ensuring robust operation.

Science Verification took place success-

fully in September and GTO time was
granted using GALACSI and MUSE in
the wide-field mode configuration in the
autumn. In September, similar efforts
were deployed on GRAAL; the positive
results obtained with HAWK-I mean the
system will soon be offered to the com-
munity. Data obtained during commis-
sioning confirm the expectation that the
amount of light injected into image pixels
can be enhanced by a factor of two
using GALACSI. GALACSI will correct for
ground-layer turbulence in the MUSE
1-arcminute field of view, considerably
improving the final image quality, espe-
cially during conditions when there is a
high concentration of turbulence close to
the ground (< 900 metres).
Above: GALACSI on UT4 (Yepun), between the Below: The planetary nebula NGC 6563 observed
­Nasmyth focus and MUSE. before (left) and after (right) the use of the AOF with
GRAAL also met specifications over its
MUSE, revealing faint structures that have never
7-arcminute field of view (using a different seen before.
metric from that used for GALACSI). The
robust implementation of the complete
ESO/P. Weilbacher (AIP)

AOF including the 4LGSF and DSM with

its adaptive optics modules and instru-
ment is particularly impressive. It takes
under 2 minutes to complete the acquisi-
tion sequence which includes the follow-
ing steps: launching the laser beams;
acquiring them; acquiring and centring
the tip-tilt star; and then closing the high-
order and low-order loops and managing
all the annex servo loops and offloads.
GALACSI narrow-field mode commis-
sioning will start in early 2018 and will be
the last activity for the AOF project. The
narrow-field mode is the most challeng-
ing configuration of the AOF and the
image correction targeted will feature a

64 ESO Annual Report 2017

diffraction-limited core with Strehl Ratios
as good as 10% (in the R-band).
VLTI facility
Begun in the summer of 2014, the VLTI
Facility Project is two years from comple-
tion. Provisional Acceptance Chile has
been granted for the service station of
the ATs, the four star separators in the
upgraded ATs, the four star separators in
the upgraded coudé areas of the UTs
(including its adaptive optics system
MACAO), and the upgraded VLTI labora-
tory. These installations and upgrades
have permitted the integration of the four
CIAO systems, and the commissioning
and release into operation of the spectro-
scopic mode of GRAVITY with both UTs
and ATs. Quite a few activities were
required to optimise the software inter-
faces to properly host GRAVITY and
MATISSE, including modifications to the
VLTI software, porting it to the VLT core
documentation kit called VLT2016, the
procurement of the feeding optics for
MATISSE and its installation into the VLTI
laboratory.
All the coudé mirrors of the ATs were
replaced with a new set of optics and
new coatings, which improved the VLTI
transmission with the ATs at most wave-
lengths. Vibrations on the ATs have been
mitigated as verified by the GRAVITY
fringe tracker; only the impact of the wind
remains to be resolved. The vibration mit-
igation campaign on the UTs was very
successful. After the replacement of the
cooling pumps, all UT baselines reached
a record low level of vibrations, under
200 nm (root mean square). In the mean-
time, a vibration metrology system has
been developed and its prototype tested
at Paranal. When the final version is
installed, measurement of vibrations will
be carried out in daytime; they are cur-
rently limited to nighttime observations
with GRAVITY. This monitoring is essen-
tial to maintain the low level of vibrations
and to identify their cause.
The adaptive optics of the Auxiliary Tele-
scopes, the New Adaptive Optics Module
for Interferometry (NAOMI) underwent
significant advances. The delta-FDR at
the beginning of 2017 established the
final design of the corrective optics,
including its deformable mirrors. After
that, the project progressed well, and the
first prototype system was fully integrated
and tested in Garching. The first loop
was closed in November 2017. The other
four corrective optics are now in integra-
tion at IPAG (Grenoble) and will be deliv-
ered soon. A detailed integration and
commissioning plan has been developed;
it will require the closure of the ATs from
September to November 2018. By the
end of 2018, the VLTI will have better
resilience against poor seeing, and a sig-
nificant improvement in terms of fringe
tracking performance and sensitivity.
Following the commissioning of NAOMI,
the last activity of the VLTI Facility Project
will be the development and deployment
of “GRAVITY for MATISSE” in 2019; a
fringe-tracking mode expected to signifi-
cantly improve the sensitivity of the
­MATISSE instrument. The last pair of
­differential delay lines was also installed
in Paranal in February 2017.
La Silla instruments
The LFC provides a series of equally
spaced, stable spectral lines for an
unprecedentedly precise wavelength cali-
bration. After five years of development,
the contract to provide a turnkey LFC
system for HARPS was completed and
the LFC was tested using daily calibra-
tions over several months. After this peri-
od of testing, the last Fabry-Perot cavity
become unstable, and needed repair. A
part of the system’s optical breadboard
will be sent back to Europe. After reinstal-
lation, the LFC will be offered to the com-
munity; a maintenance contract has
already been issued.
Two new spectrographs are under devel-
opment for La Silla: one for the 3.6-metre
telescope and one for the NTT. NIRPS
will complement HARPS by providing
1 ms –1 precision spectroscopy over the
Y, J and H infrared bands. NIRPS is on a
fast track; it passed the FDR in 2017 and
parts have been ordered and are in the
process of being delivered to the consor-
tium, which is led by the Université de
Montréal and the Observatoire de Genève.
The Memorandum of Understanding with
ESO was signed in early 2017.
The second spectrograph for La Silla is
SOXS which will provide instantaneous
cross-dispersed échelle spectroscopy
from 350 to 1750 nm at the NTT. It is
geared towards the rapid follow-up of
transient objects. In 2017, the instrument
passed PDR; a novel design for the visual
spectrograph was presented, which
enhances the instrument transmission
and which will be consolidated in 2018.
A Memorandum of Understanding with
INAF/Osservatorio di Brera for the design
phase of SOXS was signed in early 2017.
The FDR and a decision on the construc-
tion and implementation phase are
expected in 2018.
Conceptual drawing of the NIRPS instrument that will
be installed at the ESO 3.6-metre telescope. NIRPS
is an infrared spectrograph designed to detect
Earth-like rocky planets around the coolest stars.
ESO/NIRPS
ESO Annual Report 2017 65
ESO/L. Calçada

Artist’s rendering showing the ELT in operation at

Cerro Armazones.

66 ESO Annual Report 2017

Technology Development

The ESO technology development pro-

gramme is aimed at developing and
securing the technologies that ESO will
need to successfully conduct its scientific
programme in the future. Although com-
mercial industrial developments underpin
many of the new projects, in some cases
the technical risk and limited size of the
potential market mean that industry is
reluctant to take the lead. The develop-
ment programme can therefore play a
key role in initiating new technologies for
ESO’s instruments and telescopes. In
addition to working closely with industry,
ESO also collaborates with several Euro-
pean institutes to enable advances in key
areas, for example laser guide stars.

The development of key adaptive optics

components for the ELT made substantial
progress in 2017. ESO initiated the pro-
curement, from Teledyne e2v in the UK,
of an 800 × 800 visible complementary
metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)
­sensor with associated Peltier cooling
package, called the large visible sensor The ELT instruments will require large The FIAT test ­facility undergoing final assembly in the
ESO integration hall.
module (LVSM). With high readout numbers of 4k × 4k (or equivalent) infra-
speeds and low noise, these devices will red sensors for their focal planes. As
be incorporated into compact cameras in the VLT era, given our experienced a new test facility, known as the FIAT,
for wavefront sensing, which ESO will detector team and well-equipped labora- which will be able to optically test two
prototype and outsource to industry for tories, ESO will be testing and delivering such devices at a time, in a fully automat-
production. Many elements of the camer- the sensors and the required controllers ed way. With a very low background and
as have been defined, including cooling, for the first generation of ELT instruments. an operating wavelength out to 5 μm, FIAT
power supplies and main board and To assist with this, we have developed will be able to make difficult but critical
housing designs.
110
Artificial laser guide stars 90 km above
the Earth, created by lasers tuned to the
589 nm line of sodium, act as reference 105
sources for the measurement of turbu-
lence-induced errors in the wavefront. A
large amount of data on the achievable
100
return flux from a laser guide star has
been obtained since 2016, with initial
results presented in June 2017. Prepara-
Altitude (km)

95
tions have also started on advanced
adaptive optics techniques including up-
link correction of the laser, pulsed lasers,
90 The evolution over time
dynamic refocusing and pyramid wave- of the height and density
front sensing of the laser guide star. of the sodium layer in the
This work is being carried out in collabo- mesosphere. The bright
ration with the University of Durham (UK), 85 feature on the right is
likely due to ablation of
the Laboratoire d’études spatiales et a meteorite depositing
d’instrumentation en astrophysique fresh sodium in the
(LESIA, France), the Max Planck Institute 80 upper atmosphere. This
for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE, Germa- was obtained with the
Isaac Newton Telescope
ny), the Italian National Institute for sodium profiler and the
Astrop­hysics (INAF, Italy) and the Instituto 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 ESO Wendelstein laser
de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC, Spain). UTC time (hours) guide star in June 2017.

ESO Annual Report 2017 67

measurements in areas such as image
persistence and dark current. In addition,
a precision spot projection system will
enable intra-pixel quantum efficiency
measurements to be made.

The year has also seen excellent progress

with other projects in the technology
development programme:
– The NEAR project will modify the
VLT Imager and Spectrometer for mid-­
InfraRed (VISIR) in order to greatly
enhance its ability to search for poten-
tially habitable planets around Alpha
Centauri, the closest stellar system to
the Earth. The FDR was completed
successfully in August. NEAR is funded
by the Breakthrough Initiatives, which
were founded in 2015 by Yuri and Julia
Milner.
– A first phase of development in collabo-
ration with industry of new compact
and high-order deformable mirrors has
progressed well and will finish in 2018.
– A new project to develop low-noise
­cryogenic amplifiers for use on ALMA
has started, with a successful call for
tender for consortia/industry to develop
these.
–A small in-house programme of research
into high-contrast techniques has pro-
gressed well using the high-order test
bench to test extreme adaptive optics
performance. To date, more than 400
modes have been corrected.
– We have also made good progress
with assembling a small consortium
to develop larger (500 × 500) infrared
­avalanche photodiode arrays with
Leonardo (UK).

A supermoon, rising behind the Cerro A

­ rmazones
mountain, home of the ELT.
G.Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com)/ESO
The Extremely Large Telescope
At the end of 2016, the ELT Programme
Manager anticipated that 2017 would be
“the primary mirror year”. A lot of steps
were needed to launch the production of
various primary mirror (M1) components
such as segment blanks, segment polish-
ing, segment supports, positioning actu-
ators and edge sensors. Indeed, at the
end of 2017, the only contract remaining
to be signed was for the series produc-
tion of the M1 segment supports. The
call for tender process was concluded in
2017 and the contract was approved by
the Finance Committee (FC) in February
2018. All other major M1 contracts had
been initiated by the end of 2017.
The timely start of these contracts is par-
ticularly important for two reasons. Firstly,
the production of the primary mirror lies
on the “critical path”. This means that any
delay can impact the date of first light.
Secondly, these contracts have a certain
degree of interdependence; for example,
the blank is needed to start polishing,
and the segment support is required at
the end of the polishing process for final
testing and corrective polishing by ion-
beam figuring. Although the main focus in
2017 was on M1, impressive progress
was also achieved in procuring other opto-
mechanical units, for example, blanks,
polishing and supports for the secondary
and tertiary mirrors, M2 and M3, and
The President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, attended
the First Stone ceremony for the ELT. This photo
shows ESO Director General Tim de Zeeuw (left),
Roberto Tamai, Programme Manager for the ELT
(second from right) and Andreas Kaufer, Director of
the La Silla Paranal Observatory (right).
70 ESO Annual Report 2017
­ ritical components such as the ELT
c which authorised the procurement of
technical facility building at Paranal, and
the pre-focal station that hosts the sen-
sors for telescope wavefront control. By
the end of 2017 almost 90% of the mate-
rial cost of ELT Phase 1 (amounting to
about 800 million euros) had been com-
mitted and more than 20 major contracts
(totalling over 500 million euros) are cur-
rently running.
In parallel with these procurement activi-
ties, effort was also dedicated to follow-up
contracts. Some 2017 highlights include
the following: the ELT dome passed its
PDR in June; the M4 Unit passed its FDR
in December; the final design and qualifi-
cation contract for the M1 Segment Sup-
port concluded (enabling the procure-
ment of the series); and the High Angular
Resolution Monolithic Optical and Near-
infrared Integral-field spectrograph
(­HARMONI) instrument had its FDR meet-
ing in December. In addition, there was
progress on hardware; for example, the
first M4 mirror shell was polished down
to its final thickness (less than 2 mm), the
dummy M2 mirror was manufactured,
and the blanks for M2, M3 and the first
six M1 segments were cast and are in
the process of ceramisation.
Internal activities progressed in 2017,
such as the FDR of the M1 Local Control
System in October and the i­nitiation of a
critical test bench called “Minuscule-ELT”
(MELT) to develop and validate the tele-
scope wavefront control algorithms.
December 2017 saw a set of important
new resolutions from the ESO Council,
­previously unfunded Phase 2 items related
to the primary mirror, i.e., the five inner
rings of segments, a spare sector and a
second M1 maintenance unit. This deci-
sion was strongly recommended by the
external ELT Management Advisory
­Committee (EMAC) at its December 2016
meeting, and was made possible thanks
to additional funds brought into the ESO
budget by the strategic arrangement
with Australia (see p. 102). With this major
development, the ELT will have all the
segments available to fill M1.
On the other side of the Atlantic, at Cerro
Armazones in Chile, 2017 also yielded
a number of significant milestones. The
most prominent was the official First
Stone ceremony held on 26 May in the
presence of the President of Chile,
Michelle Bachelet, and many other distin-
guished international and Chilean guests
(p. 103). This ceremony marked the start
of the ELT dome and telescope construc-
tion by the ACe consortium, and the site
was f­ormally handed over to the consor­
tium at that time. Later in the year, further
inauguration ceremonies marked the end
of the 50-km extension of the Chilean
electrical network by the Chilean electrical
company Saesa, and in December, the
connection of the Paranal Observatory to
the public network. This marked the start
of a new “green” era after 20 years of
locally generated energy (using diesel and
gas turbines) and paved the way for the
electrical supply of the ELT.
The President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, seals the
time capsule at the First Stone ceremony for the ELT.
ESO/F. Rodriguez
ESO/M. Zamani
The ELT contract signature ceremony at ESO Head-
quarters. This picture shows representatives of all
the teams involved: SCHOTT, the SENER Group, the
FAMES consortium and ESO.
Science and Instrumentation
The scientific instruments currently part
of the funded ELT programme are:
– HARMONI, an adaptive-optics-fed
­integral-field spectrograph for the
­optical and near infrared;
– MICADO (Multi-AO Imaging CAmera
for Deep Observations), a multi-­
conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO)-fed
near-infrared imager with slit spectros-
copy capability;
– MAORY (Multi-conjugate Adaptive
Optics RelaY), an MCAO module to
feed MICADO and an auxiliary port;
– METIS (Mid-infrared ELT Imager and
Spectrograph), an adaptive-optics-
assisted imager/spectrometer for the
thermal infrared;
– MOSAIC, an optical to near-infrared
multi-object spectrograph (Phase A
study);
– HIRES, an optical to near-infrared high-
resolution spectrograph (Phase A study).
These instruments are being developed
by consortia under agreements signed
with ESO in mid-2015. Except for the
last two instruments, these agreements
include the complete development
­process from the preliminary design to
installation on site.
2017 saw the first PDRs for the HARMONI
instrument in November and for its Laser
Tomography Adaptive Optics (LTAO)
Module in December. The PDRs for sev-
eral other instruments (MICADO, MAORY
and METIS) are scheduled for 2018 but
good progress was made in 2017, with
important intermediate milestones passed,
such as system requirements reviews or
interface definitions. The Phase A studies
for both MOSAIC and HIRES also made
good progress and will be completed in
early 2018. The ESO ELT Instrumentation
Project and the ELT Programme Scientist
are following the development of the
­scientific instruments closely to ensure
that the proposed scientific goals will be
achieved.
Interest in the ELT and its instrumentation
within the wider scientific community is
very high and growing. The status of the
ELT Programme was presented at several
international meetings, including a five-
day symposium entitled “Early Science
with the ELTs”, which was proposed and
has been selected for the IAU General
Assembly in Vienna in August 2018.
Progress was also made in the critical
development of wavefront sensors and
science detectors that are to be delivered
by ESO to instruments. This included
Finance Committee approval for a devel-
opment contract for natural guide star
wavefront detectors. The science detec-
tor procurement remains a critical area
from a cost and performance point of
view.
Other activities have included the release
of a new ESO standard for instrument
cryogenic infrastructure to meet the
ELT’s specific needs, progress towards
a real-time computer “toolkit”, and adap-
tive optics wavefront sensing cameras
to be used by the instruments and the
telescope.
New industrial contracts
No fewer than a dozen new contracts
were signed and started during 2017.
Four significant contracts were initiated
at a ceremony in January. The first two
contracts were signed with SCHOTT
(Germany). They cover the casting and
machining of the blanks for the ELT’s
largest single mirrors — the 4.2-metre
convex aspheric secondary and the 3.8-
metre concave aspheric tertiary mirror —
made from SCHOTT’s low-expansion
ceramic material Zerodur ®. The third con-
tract was signed with the SENER group
(Spain) for the design and manufacture
of the sophisticated support cells for the
ELT secondary and tertiary mirrors and
the associated complex active optics
systems. Those systems will ensure that
the massive but flexible mirrors retain
their precise shapes and are correctly
positioned within the telescope in order
to deliver optimum image quality.
The fourth contract was signed with
FAMES, a consortium composed of Fogale
(France) and Micro-Epsilon (Germany).
The contract covers the design and fabri-
cation of over 4500 edge sensor pairs
for the 798 hexagonal segments of the
ELT’s primary mirror. These sensors are
the most accurate ever used in a tele-
scope and can measure relative positions
to an accuracy of a few nanometres.
They form a fundamental part of the very
complex system that will continuously
sense the position of each ELT primary
ESO Annual Report 2017 71
mirror segment relative to its neighbour
and allow the segments to work together
to form a perfect imaging system. It is a
real challenge not only to make sensors
with the required precision, but also to
produce them quickly enough for thou-
sands to be delivered within the neces-
sarily short timescales.
Later in the year, seven more contracts
were approved, signed and initiated. In
February, ESO awarded the contract to
Safran Reosc (France) to polish the third
mirror in the light path (M3). Safran Reosc
will receive the blank from SCHOTT,
design the mirror and its mounting inter-
faces, polish the surface and complete
all necessary optical tests before delivery.
M3 will be a 3.8-metre concave mirror,
the same size as the primary mirrors of
many current world-class telescopes.
At a joint signature ceremony at the end
of May, two contracts were signed to
produce the 798 segments for the ELT
primary mirror (M1). The first one, for the
casting and machining of the blanks, was
signed with SCHOTT (Germany). The
second one, for the polishing of the seg-
ments, was signed with Safran Reosc.
As for the M3 mirror, the blank will be
delivered by SCHOTT to Safran Reosc
who will then design the mounting inter-
faces, figure and polish the segments,
integrate them into their support systems
and perform optical tests before delivery.
During the polishing process, each
­segment will be polished until it has no
surface irregularities larger than 10 nm.
To meet the challenge of delivering such
a large number of polished segments
within seven years, Safran Reosc will
build up to a peak production rate of one
mirror segment per day. By the end of
2017, Safran Reosc had a detailed plan
of the necessary refurbishment of a
­facility at its Poitiers plant, specialising in
the production of high-tech optical and
optronic (electro-optical) equipment.
The contract for segment polishing is the
third-largest contract that ESO has ever
signed and the second-largest for the
ELT (after the dome and telescope struc-
ture contract, which was awarded to ACe
in May 2016).
Also in May 2017, ESO awarded a multi-
million-euro contract to Teledyne e2v
(UK) to design and produce a set of
72 ESO Annual Report 2017
LVSM modules for use on the ELT adap-
tive optics systems. Each sensor, with
a size of 800 × 800 pixels, will employ
Teledyne e2v’s CMOS technology. Their
extreme sensitivity and fast response
will allow the ELT’s adaptive optics sys-
tems to make tiny adjustments around
700 times a second to compensate for
variations in Earth’s atmosphere. This
will ensure that the resulting astronomical
images — of objects ranging from exo-
planets to ­distant galaxies — will benefit
from the highest resolution possible with
a 39-metre telescope. The contract will
last for four years and consists of two
phases. In the initial phase, sample sen-
sors will be designed and manufactured
to demonstrate proof of concept. Follow-
ing this a total of 28 sensors will be
­manufactured at Teledyne e2v’s site in
Chelmsford (UK); most of these will be
installed in ELT instruments with the rest
being deployed as needed.
In June, ESO signed a contract with the
company Physik Instrumente GmbH &
Co. KG (Germany), to construct position
actuators that will adjust the positions
of the 798 hexagonal segments of the
primary mirror on the telescope structure.
Each segment, about 1.4 metres across
and weighing 250 kg, will be mounted
via a support system on three positioning
actuators — hence 2394 actuators in
total. Based on the measurements from
the edge sensors mentioned earlier, the
control system of the ELT primary mirror
will make tiny adjustments to the posi-
tioning actuators to maintain the mirror’s
overall shape, correcting for deformations
which may be caused by changes in
­telescope elevation, temperature and
wind forces, as well as limiting vibration
effects.
The summer of 2017 also saw the signa-
ture of a contract with Cosylab (Sweden)
for the development of the Core Inte­
gration Infrastructure (CII). This is a fun-
damental component of the telescope
control software that will integrate all
local control systems into the central con-
trol system and provide generic control
system services such as messages,
alarms and logging.
Finally, an agreement was signed in
December with the company TOPTICA
(Germany) for the supply of at least four
laser sources for the ELT adaptive optics
laser guide star system. The lasers will
be based on the design developed by
TOPTICA for the 4LGSF on the VLT
that has already brought a spectacular
improvement in image sharpness.
Looking ahead to the next round of con-
tracts, we can summarise the status of
ongoing procurement as at the end of
2017. The following list of calls for tender
were completed in the last quarter of
2017 (with the exception of the M1 Coat-
ing Plant, which was still ongoing); the
associated contract awards are therefore
ready for approval by Finance Committee
in February 2018:
– construction all-risk insurance to
cover the assembly integration and
­verification (AIV) activities on site from
2018 until the handover to operations
in late 2024;
– ELT Technical Facility: a building to be
constructed to house several assembly
and future maintenance activities at
Paranal;
– M1 segment support series production;
– prefocal station (PFS) for the Nasmyth
focus A;
– M1 coating plant.
Running contracts
The number of running ELT contracts
almost doubled in 2017, to more than
20 major industrial contracts worth over
500 million euros in total.
The oldest running contracts, placed
in summer 2015 for the design and
­manufacture of the M4 adaptive optics
mirror, are progressing well. The M4 unit
passed its FDR in December 2017 after
extensive design and prototyping activi-
ties by AdOptica (Italy) and the produc-
tion of the M4 shells is underway. All
Zerodur ® blanks were procured by Safran
Reosc (France), which has also com­
pleted polishing and thinning of the first
shell to less than 2 mm. The other shells
are being produced.
The largest ELT contract, with ACe (Italy)
for the design, manufacture and erection
of the dome and the telescope main
structure, has progressed on two fronts.
Firstly, in Europe, intensive design activi-
ties led to the PDR milestone for the
 Preparing a 1:70 scale model of the ELT for wind face and the test setup, completed the Preliminary design of the M2 cell developed by
­tunnel tests. SENER.
quali­fication campaign for the pad
­adhesive and began the refurbishment
dome in June, as well as progress with of the former VLT M1 polishing building phase with a review planned for January
preparing for the PDR of the telescope to accommodate the new machines for 2018. The edge sensor contract passed
structure, which is scheduled in February ELT M2 and M3 polishing. In addition, an interim design review in mid-2017 and
2018. Secondly, following the formal hand new machines were ordered and the a qualification test readiness review in
over of the Armazones site from ESO to 1.8-metre large aspheric matrix, to be the last quarter of 2017, in readiness for
ACe in May, onsite activities began with used for the M2 stitching interferometric a PDR in the first half of 2018. The activi-
the construction of the base camp, which test, was produced. ties related to the M3 mirror-polishing
will be able to accommodate up to 500 contract follow a very similar workflow to
workers. ACe also delivered to ESO a Impressive milestones were also passed those for the M2 polishing contract, which
mock-up of the M1 support structure that for new contracts signed in 2017. The started a few months earlier. In particular,
ESO will use to test the control system M3 blank was cast at SCHOTT, ahead of the design for the critical tools and pro-
for up to seven M1 segments, including schedule in May, closely followed by the cesses to control and test the M3 optical
positioning actuators and edge sensors. casting of the M2 blank in August. Both surface was completed and the adhesive
blanks were annealed and are now in the qualification was initiated.
Throughout the year, ESO continued to slow cool-down (ceramisation) process,
use the expert services provided by which lasts several months. The M2 and The first hexagonal segments for the main mirror
Ramboll (Denmark), ISQ (Portugal) and M3 cells contract launched in January of ESO’s ELT are successfully cast by the German
Critical SW (Portugal) through ongoing went through the preliminary design company SCHOTT at their facility in Mainz.
consulting contracts. The contract with
VDL (The Netherlands) for the final design SCHOTT/ESO
and qualification of the M1 segment
s­upport, which started in 2015, passed
the design validation review in April. This
review included scrutiny of extensive test
results obtained on an engineering model
fully representative of the final units. The
contract was completed by the end of
2017 with the production of six additional
qualification models, including minor
modifications stemming from the design
validation review. Those milestones were
critical to finalise the design and launch
the call for tender for the series produc-
tion, which will be reviewed by the ESO
Finance Committee in February 2018.

The M2 polishing contract started in

July 2016, when Safran Reosc passed
the design reviews for the mirror inter-

ESO Annual Report 2017 73

Other activities

Many internal activities occurred during

2017 to consolidate aspects of the system
and the managerial structure of the pro-
gramme. New assignments were made
on the managerial side to adapt the team
to reflect the latest developments, such
as signing the new contracts reported
above. Two staff members have been
assigned to each contract; one focuses
on the technical and managerial aspects
while the second, a contract officer, is in
charge of the commercial aspects. Over-
all, more than 20 ESO staff members are
involved in these contract management
activities, mostly on a part-time basis. The
total ESO ELT staff effort in 2017 amount-
ed to about 70 Full Time Equivalents.

A new role of Telescope Scientist was

created alongside the current instrument
scientists. Among the Telescope Scien-
tist’s tasks, an important activity was
­initiated to build the MELT wavefront
­control demonstration test bench. This
test bench re-uses hardware that was
developed in former laboratory experiment
projects, such as a small piezo-driven
segmented mirror, a turbulence generator
and adaptive optics wavefront sensors,
the objective being to simulate the most
important characteristics of the ELT opti-
cal configuration and optical control
loops. MELT will be an important compo-
nent in the testing and performance veri-
fication processes for the ELT.

During 2017, further progress was made

on planning the on-site AIV activities to
ensure the smooth execution of this criti-
cal phase of the project, including organ-
ising a workshop at Paranal in October
to identify and discuss ways in which to
maximise synergies between both facili-
ties with observatory staff.

Finally, a systems engineering effort was

initiated in 2017 to define and prepare
for an ELT System Verification Review in
2018. The review was initially recom-
mended by the ELT Management Advi­
sory Committee (EMAC) in December
2016 as an important step to further
ensure the scientific success of the ELT.

Model of the ELT, the largest optical telescope in

the world.

74 ESO Annual Report 2017

ESO Annual Report 2017 75
 Engineering
Juan Carlos Muñoz-Mateos/ESO

76 ESO Annual Report 2017

The Directorate of Engineering pro-
vides engineering resources and ser-
vices to all ESO programmes and to
the operations teams at the observa-
tories and at ESO Headquarters. In
addition, the Directorate of Engineer-
ing provides information technology (IT)
services to the whole organisation.
In 2017, the Directorate contributed to
the development and maintenance
of instruments and infrastructure at the
La Silla Paranal and ALMA Observato-
ries. The Directorate spends a large
fraction of its resources on the ELT
programme and has been very active
in following up industrial contracts as
well as in related design, prototyping
activities and feasibility studies for the
ELT and its instruments.
Many of the activities carried out by the
Directorate of Engineering are under
the governance of the Directorate of
Programmes or of Operations and are
reported from different perspectives in
the corresponding sections.
In addition, the Directorate is respon­
sible for the development and mainte-
nance of the engineering standards
used by all projects. For example, the
Directorate has invested effort into
developing new cooling and cryogenic
standards. The Directorate also main-
tains the laboratories, workshops and
integration halls, as well as developing
test facilities for detectors.
The 4 Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) on UT4.
Mechanical Engineering Department
The department provides mechanical
engineering support to almost all ESO
projects, for example, the ELT, the Paranal
Instrumentation Programme, ESO’s
assembly hall in Garching, the LPO and
ALMA. The department operates the
mechanical workshop and laboratory
facilities in the technical building, manages
the stock keeping of standard mechanical
components and technical gases and
provides maintenance and operational
support to the detector test facilities. It
operates several engineering tools, for
example, finite element method (FEM) for
structural analysis, mechanical computer
aided design (CAD) systems, computa-
tional fluid dynamics (CFD) and product
data management (PDM) for configuration
control. The mechanical engineers and
technicians are responsible for the defini-
tion, design, analysis, procurement and
assembly of mechanical, opto-mechanical,
cryogenic and v­ acuum systems for
advanced telescopes and instruments.
They are also involved with the installa-
tion and commissioning of ­previously
designed systems on the telescopes and
instruments in Chile and s­ upport on-site
mechanical teams undertaking upgrade
projects.
In 2017 the department made major
­contributions to: following up on projects
such as ELT subsystems, for example,
the development of a seismic isolation
damping system and verification of the
hydrostatic bearing system; participating
in reviews; performing cross-check analy-
ses; and lifetime calculations of the VLT
bogie bearings based on real data that
can be applied to the similar calculations
for future ELT dome rotation bearings.
Building Information Modelling tech­
nology — a process involving the genera-
tion and management of digital informa-
tion that represents the physical and
project-related characteristics of equip-
ment and infrastructure — is being devel-
oped for implementation on ELT infra-
structure. One example of a typical activity
in the mechanical department was the
development of a conceptual design and
analysis of the PFS for the ELT. This led to
a document on the technical requirements
for tender documentation of the PFS.
The conceptual design for a new ELT M1
test stand was developed in the depart-
ment and procurement documents were
prepared and sent to the dome and
main structure contractor. After manufac-
turing and acceptance, the test stand
was installed in the Integration Hall in
Garching. The position of the interface
The ELT M1 test bench in the technical building inte-
gration hall at ESO’s Headquarters.
ESO/H. Bonnet
ESO Annual Report 2017 77

1
2
3 ­harness system was developed and is
4
5 9
6 The edge sensor project is now ready
7 for PDR in the first quarter of 2018 and
The Infrared detector (left) and the Infrared d
­ etector
mount (right) for MOONS.
1. Hawaii 4RG infrared detector
2. Invar carrier
3. Heatsink Diode
flanges for the segment supports was
verified with a laser tracker. Soon after,
the first two segment fixed frames were
installed and aligned on the test stand.
Some tests were performed to optimise
the alignment procedure, and after-
wards one of the segment dummies was
installed on the fixed frame to perform
dynamic tests. Critical bolted connec-
tions in the M1 ­segment support struc-
ture have been internally verified.
The ESO internal document on the
­standards for “vacuum and cryogenics
standard components” has been up­dated
and released, and was very well received
by both external consortia and ESO
­engineers. The document describes the
vacuum/cryogenic design and the com-
ponent standards for LPO as well as ELT
instruments. The assortment of vacuum
pump units available for all labora­tories
and projects was also replenished in the
frame of testing new products to be
selected as ESO standard.
Department members were deeply
involved in many Paranal instrumentation
and technology development projects, for
example, GRAVITY, ESPRESSO, MOONS,
NAOMI, CRIRES+, 4MOST, MATISSE,
and the AOF, including the LGSF and
DSM, GALACSI, ERIS, VLTI infrastructure
upgrade and the FIAT. Moreover, the
design and analysis of the ELT Instru-
ments H­ ARMONI, METIS, MAORY and
MICADO are being closely followed, and
various ELT detector developments, for
example ESO’s first design of a 4k x 4k
78 ESO Annual Report 2017
8
4. F
 lexible Thermal link between carrier and detector
5. 0.5 W Heater
6. Thermal cut-out
7. Detector mounting screws
8. Insulators
9. Spider interface plate
infrared de­­tector for MOONS, are being
supported.
Electronics Engineering Department
The Electronics Engineering Department
is responsible for the definition, design
and manufacturing of control electronic
and detector systems and subsystems
for telescopes and instruments, as well
as for electrical compliance verification
for all ESO projects. The domain of
expertise in this department is large,
­covering instrument and telescope con-
trol electronics and automation, as well
as detector systems design, production
qualifications and tests.
Electronics engineering and workshop
groups
The design work associated with the
obsolescence management of VME-
based (Versa Module Eurocard) systems
is now almost complete. We have entered
full production for the analogue I/O and
MACCON DC and Stepper motion con-
trollers and the digital I/O board prototype
is due in the first quarter of 2018. When
tested, it will be used to produce and
support La Silla Paranal instrumentation
for the next 10 years with all the main key
VME boards.
At the instrumentation level, the upgrade
of CRIRES+ was completed and
ESPRESSO was being commissioned.
At the telescope level, the VISTA tele-
scope ­control system upgrade is being
finalised for installation at Paranal in the
second half of 2018.
Regarding the ELT, the M1 warping
now ready for full production by an exter-
nal industrial company. This is a great
success that has demonstrated the capa-
bility to develop and produce a complex
system on demand and under pressure.
the M1 local control system (LCS) control
system is also at an advanced stage.
On the ALMA side, the correlator fibre
splicing has been implemented and the
fibres replaced at the Array Operations
Site (AOS). In addition, some reported
issues related to the control electronics
on the antennas were followed up.
At the infrastructure level, most of the
detector laboratories have been upgrad-
ed and the clean room and associated
laboratories have been completely refur-
bished. The infrared detector test bench
is now in operation and the FIAT vessel
arrived at the ESO premises for full inte-
gration by Q2 2017.
Compliance Engineering Group
Through the efforts of the Compliance
Engineering Group, the LPO observato-
ries are now connected to the Chilean
grid. This is a major success and essen-
tial for the integration of the ELT at LPO.
The Compliance Engineering Group
has been involved in the telescope dome
and main structure project, authoring
and reviewing technical specifications for
forthcoming ELT contracts, along with
instrument documentation from the con-
sortia. On the safety and compliance
engineering side, a team has continued
to work on ELT system hazard analysis
(involving the identification and reporting
of inter-system safety hazards and
­organisation of a hazard analysis evalua-
tion team).
Detectors Group
On the VLT, the ESPRESSO and MATISSE
instruments were being commissioned
and the new CRIRES+ detectors are
fully operational. The new infrared test
facilities will be used to qualify all the ELT
infrared detectors and are therefore a
key part of the test infrastructure. Overall,

ESO/P. Darré
efforts have been concentrated on
upgrading and rationalising the test infra-
structure for detectors to be ready for
the ELT. The NAOMI detector interfaces
were also developed successfully and
should enter production in 2018. After
some problems with one of the detector
providers, the contract to develop the
new visible wavefront sensor detectors is
back on track.
The team has continued its work on
the HARMONI, MICADO and METIS ELT
instruments and delivered PDR docu-
mentation for some of these.
Systems Engineering Department
The department consists of four groups.
The Processes and Standards Group,
and the System Analysis Group mostly
support the ELT Programme. The Adap-
tive Optics Group and the Instrument
Systems Group work together with the
community to build and upgrade LPO
and ELT instruments. The department
provides all the functions of systems
engineering, from technical coordination
and design architecture to system analy-
sis, including configuration and perfor-
mance management.
Processes and Standards Group
The work done by the Processes and
Standards Group in 2017 focused on ELT
systems engineering. This essentially
included the ongoing activities required
to ensure that the ELT follows a coherent
systems approach to meet the top-level
requirements, in particular, as it concerns
Acquisition camera: field-of-view
5
Arcseconds
0
–5
5 0
Arcseconds
SCAO, wave-front error = 181 nm
Above: The VIBMET
experiment in the VLTI
laboratory at Paranal.
Right: End-to-end
­s imulation of a Single
Conjugate Adaptive
Optics (SCAO) mode.
The numbers give the
scale of the wave-front
deformations.
the development of the many subsystems.
These activities include: requirements
and interfaces management (i.e., keeping
the requirements database up to date
and leading the preparation of the inter-
face control documents); documentation
and configuration management, with
emphasis on the change control process
(which consumes significant resources);
keeping the technical budgets updated
according to the evolution of the design;
and verification management with the
definition of a system verification. Finally
the group made contributions to the
instrument design reviews that took place
during the year.
System Analysis Group
This group provides and maintains end-
to-end models of wavefront control for
the ELT and VLTI. It also provides project
management and support to the com-
mon instruments systems research and
development project and to the VLTI. The
main milestones of 2017 were reached
for the VIBMET (VIBrations METrology)
and MELT projects.
VIBMET is a laser-metrology-based sys-
tem implemented in the VLTI laboratory to
Position actuator 1.8 μm
ESO/H. Bonnet
–5
M4 380 nm
monitor the vibrations produced by the
UTs. A prototype was tested in Paranal in
September 2017. The final system will be
installed in March 2018 on the four UTs.
In 2017, the ELT System Analysis group
started preparing for telescope commis-
sioning. A Matlab ray-tracing model was
enhanced with a finite-element model
of the adaptive mirror M4, and a model of
the control system and its interfaces to
the telescope. It will serve the MELT pro-
ject, which is an upgrade of the mirror
phasing experiment called Phasing the
ELT with Adaptive optics Control Experi-
ment (PEACE) and in­cludes the deploy-
ment of the ELT Control System, which
will be tested on a functional opto-
mechanical model of the telescope. The
group also provided the requirements for
the opto-mechanical design of MELT.
Adaptive Optics System Group
The purpose of this group is to provide
the ESO astronomical community with
world-class adaptive optics observing
capabilities that overcome the limitations
arising from atmospheric turbulence. The
group is involved in delivering adaptive
optics modules for the second-generation
ESO Annual Report 2017 79

ESO/Aller Carpentier
VLT instruments, participating in the ELT
programme, and developing the technol-
ogy required by the next generation of
No. of occurrences
adaptive optics systems. In 2017, the main
highlights concern the AOF and Stereo-
Scidar. The latter is an instrument used
to measure the vertical profile of optical
turbulence (Cn2 ). It was developed by
­Durham University, delivered to Paranal
in 2016 and has been used by the adap-
tive optics group to establish a database
that will give access to long-term, high-
resolution Cn2 profiles for the first time.
GALACSI was re-assembled at Paranal,
installed on Yepun (UT4) and commis-
sioned on sky with MUSE. MUSE and
GALACSI are now part of routine science
operations at Paranal. On average, the
image quality is improved by a factor
of 2; the most frequent image quality
delivered by GALACSI is an impressive
0.3 arcseconds.
Instrument Systems Group
Together with the project scientists, the
group provides technical system and
­project management leadership for both
internal and external instrumentation
­projects.
There are currently ten instrumentation
projects — seven for the Paranal Obser-
vatory and three for the ELT — each of
which is at a different phase. Examples
include the ELT instrument HARMONI,
which passed its PDR in 2017, the VLTI
mid-infrared instrument MATISSE, which
started commissioning after a successful
assembly and test phase at Paranal,
and the VLT instrument CRIRES+, which
should be shipped to Chile towards the
end of 2018.
80 ESO Annual Report 2017
80
60
40
20
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
The group’s activities also include the
definition of standard documentation
and processes for instrumentation
p­rojects, supporting the central role of
instrument development as an ESO core
objective and competence. As a result
of these activities, the ELT programme
is making increasing use of instrument
­systems engineering provided by the
group, including both requirements engi-
neering and the coordination of engineer-
ing disciplines.
Optical Engineering Department
This department supports ESO projects
in the areas of optical design for tele-
scopes and instruments, active optics
and wavefront control, metrology for
telescope alignment, laser guide stars,
optical fibre technology and AIV of
­instruments. It also manages the optics
laboratories and the integration facilities.
In 2017, some members of the depart-
ment received awards in recognition of
their achievements. Bernard Delabre
was awarded the 2017 Tycho Brahe Prize
On the night of 22 to
23 March, the GALACSI
team (left) celebrated
the first light of the com-
plex adaptive optics
system with MUSE with
its adaptive optics
­module, GALACSI. A
screen­s hot of the panels
showing the four wave-
front sensors used to
measure the turbulence
and the shape of the
secondary deformable
mirror can be seen on
the right.
MUSE image quality (full
width half maximum,
FWHM) with (red) and
without (blue) GALACSI,
illustrating the perfor-
mance of the adaptive
optics.
0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
FWHM (arcsec)
“in recognition of the development or
exploitation of European instruments or
major discoveries based largely on such
instruments”. He retired in mid-2017 and
was given ESO Emeritus status for his
achievements throughout his 40-year
career at ESO.
Domenico Bonaccini was elected a
­Fellow of the Optical Society (OSA) for
fostering the development of photonics
in novel astronomical instrumentation,
including the field of laser guide star
adaptive optics with the invention of
­narrow-band high-power Raman fibre
amplifiers. In addition, the Guide Star
­Alliance, a collaboration involving Toptica
Photonics, MPB Communications (MPBC)
and ESO, received the 2017 Paul F.
­Forman Team Engineering Excellence
Award from the OSA.
Beyond the strong engineering support
to ESO’s programmes, the department
continued research and development
activities to assess new technologies and
modern methods that may be beneficial
to ESO projects. This included the use
of a 24-channel fibre (“multi-line”) laser
 Members of the ELT Assembly, Integration and Optical measurement of an M1 prototype segment.
­Verification team.

interferometer to characterise the defor-
mation of an ELT segment due to its
warping harness, instead of relying on a
large and expensive interferometric setup.
Some field tests were also performed on
La Palma in the area of tilt detection using
laser guide star as well as laser guide star
daytime ­detection.
A dedicated test bench was set up to
investigate the feasibility of segmented
mirror phasing with a laser guide star.
The mirror phasing experiment PEACE
was successfully restarted after resolving
the obsolescence of key components,
including its unique internal metrology.
This allowed 61 hexagonal segments to
be phased to nanometre precision. This
bench is helping to develop know-how
on phasing and coupling it with adaptive
optics; it will evolve into the MELT test
bench by the end of 2018 as part of the
ELT verification activities.
Significant effort was also invested in
developing optical integration and
­measurement capabilities. This involved
either the upgrade of existing equipment
(interferometer, spectrophotometer,
wavefront sensors) or the extension of
the measurement portfolio using a laser
tracker, laser multiline technologies and
forthcoming computer-generated holo-
gram testing. The department also start-
ed a “mirror reflectivity” measurement
campaign on mirror samples exposed to
the Paranal environment to support the
ELT mirror washing specifications. The
renovation of the 200 m2 integration hall
at the Headquarters was also completed.
Other activities included establishing an
“optics studio” software for standard
optical design and tolerancing software.
Site licences are now available for
department staff. The department devel-
oped a Matlab code allowing the trig­
gering of an optical ray-tracing and opti-
cal analysis of a telescope or instrument
in the optics studio software tool. The
objective is to enable the generation of
optical sensitivity matrices from Matlab
and using the optics studio as a ray tracer
to check optical performance based on
the mirror position and shape variation,
as well as to help with the implementation
of an alignment scheme.
Control Software and Engineering
Department

As part of the project teams, members

ESA/INAF Osservatorio di Roma/SST/ESO

of the Control Software and Engineering

department in the Directorate of Engi-
Daytime image of a laser neering are specifying, analysing, design-
guide star plume using ing, implementing, verifying and maintain-
the 1-metre Swedish ing control systems, and are responsible
Solar Telescope at
La Palma. The LGS
for the development of control software
plume is created by the for (optical and radio) telescopes and
589-metre laser beam astronomical instruments over the full
crossing the mesospher- software lifecycle.
ic sodium layer. The
apparent length from
the Swedish Solar Tele- Two specific projects are described here
scope is 72 arcseconds, while all other a
­ ctivities are described
and a filter has been in the corresponding Directorate of Pro-
used to suppress the
background light from
grammes section.
the sky. The colour scale
253 355 444 500 556 620 663 713 755 is in CCD ADU units.

ESO Annual Report 2017 81

The ELT Control Model Detail of the ESPRESSO

Giorgio Calderone, INAF Trieste

front-end receiving the
To test and integrate the ELT control
beam from up to 4 UTs,
­system, it is necessary to create an some of the COTS Tech-
­environment that represents the ELT as nical Cameras are
closely as possible, with a reasonable visible.
amount of investment and effort. The
ELT Control Model (ECM) was defined for
this purpose. Some parts of the ELT con-
trol s­ ystem are a 1:1 copy in the ECM,
while others are scaled down versions or
only simulations. In addition, the ECM
also includes diagnostic equipment to
support testing and verification.

The ECM infrastructure supports con­

tinuous integration and deployment, i.e.,
a fully automated infrastructure to bring
new versions of the control software to
the ECM and perform tests. The ECM Technologies) was selected. Owing to the will have to deal with different camera
also provides connections to various test requirement for liquid cooling, a special models from different vendors. An initia-
stands or prototypes like the new M1 casing was necessary. The VLT software tive to standardise COTS technical cam-
test stand. The ECM is now operational to control the COTS, Technical Detector eras is ongoing, to mitigate this problem.
and can support the available prototypes, Control Software (TDCS), allows consortia
but it will, of course, require further to use standard components provided The benefits of deploying COTS technical
extensions in future. by ESO and implement their own compo- cameras, however, outweigh this draw-
nents (adapters) on top. The nine COTS back ­massively. Based on this positive
Deploying COTS Technical Cameras for technical cameras were successfully expe­rience, a similar project has been ini-
VLT Instruments integrated into the ESPRESSO instrument tiated for the ELT instrument control soft-
NTCCD, ESO’s long-existing Technical structure and tested in Europe before ware, to provide a software component
Cameras solution, has hardware compo- shipping it to Paranal in autumn 2017. for controlling COTS technical cameras.
nents that become obsolete. There are
also some other disadvantages such as Thanks to intensive testing in Europe, the
space requirements and the price deployment at Paranal went smoothly Science Operation Software Department
(~ 50 000 euros per unit). To address with just a number of minor issues found
these, triggered by the ESPRESSO instru- in the TDCS. The Science Operation Software
ment, an ESO project was initiated in 2014 ­Department provides resources as part
with the aim of investigating a replacement As a result of the positive experience with of the ESO matrix for developing science
of the expensive NTCCD solution with ESPRESSO, COTS technical cameras will operation software for the end-to-end
off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions. be used for three other VLT instruments: operations of the LPO and ALMA as
–E
 RIS will use a technical CCD from the well as the ELT. The department is com-
COTS devices are self-contained units same vendor as ESPRESSO, which posed of three groups: Dataflow Infra-
that provide their own detector control should make the adaptation straight­ structure; Pipeline Systems; and Software
hardware and software, and a high- forward. Engineering.
level interface to the VLT software. This –4
 MOST needs technical CCDs both for
results in a major simplification of the a refurbishment of the VISTA telescope In 2017, the department contributed to
instrument control system overall, com- control system and for the instrument the organisation of the Astronomical Data
pared to deploying the rather complex itself. Because of demanding require- Analysis Software and Systems confer-
NTCCD system. ments, the project is considering high- ence, ADASS XXVII, which took place in
end camera solutions. Santiago de Chile in October 2017. This
ESPRESSO uses nine such technical –M
 OONS will deploy 33 technical CCD was the first time the conference had
cameras and using the NTCCD would cameras of which one type is a CCD been held in Chile, and it attracted more
hardly be feasible. The instrument assembled in-house, based on COTS than 400 participants, 130 of whom came
employs technical cameras for the pur- components. from Chilean universities and institutes.
pose of field and pupil stabilisation and
for the exposure meter. In collaboration The usage of COTS technical cameras As part of the project teams, members
with the ESPRESSO consortium, require- brings many advantages including cost of the Dataflow Infrastructure Group
ments were defined and some camera reduction, higher flexibility for instruments, develop tools for proposal submission,
models were tested at ESO. Finally, the less space occupation and less complex- observation preparation and execution,
camera BigEye G-132B (Allied Vision ity in software. A drawback is that ESO archive ingestion and retrieval, data

82 ESO Annual Report 2017


Screenshot of the new archive services web interface.
organisation and execution of pipelines.
Highlights in 2017 included the release of
the new Phase 2 tools to Paranal based
on a web-based interface called p2. The
Archive Services designed and developed
a new web interface, a prototype of
which has been demonstrated at several
meetings. For ALMA, the main develop-
ments were related to the Alma QUality
Assurance (AQUA) data quality system for
observatory interfaces and to the monitor
store and archive services. Moreover,
the ALMA telescope calibration subsystem
is now undergoing further development
within the department.
The Pipeline Systems Group handles
the scientific processing of data, the esti-
mation of data quality with the exposure
time calculators, the measurement of sci-
entific data quality, and high-performance
computing developments for ALMA/
CASA. One of the highlights of 2017 was
the commissioning of ESPRESSO, which
required several interventions for the instal-
lation of the dataflow system, the com-
missioning and acceptance of the pipe-
line, and the update of the night log
Members of the HARMONI consortium and review
team meet at ESO Headquarters for the preliminary
design review of the instrument.
tool. The first PDR of an ELT instrument,
HARMONI, took place in October.
The Software Engineering and Quality
Group provides the tools necessary to
support the development process, and
the testing, integration, and release of
scientific operation software. In 2017,
work was done on the definition of the
Software Quality Assurance Plan for the
ELT, including participation in design
reviews, and providing support to the VLT
and ALMA dataflow developments. This
mainly involved testing the VLT’s new
Phase 2 tool p2, the VLT’s GuideCAM
and ALMA’s AQUA and Observing Tool
applications, as well as the c
­ ollection of
key performance indicators for ALMA
releases. The development infrastructure
was upgraded with the replacement of
Apache subversion (SVN) servers and the
update of the proprietary issue tracking
system JIRA, which now also supports
the ELT programme control office. Sup-
port was given to the transition of ALMA
software development to a new version
control system (called Git) and a different
development process.
Information Technology Department
The ESO IT Department delivers services
and supports users and science opera-
tions in fulfilling the ESO mission.
During 2017, IT supported the deployment
of instruments at the observatory sites,
the prevention of network obsolescence
in Chile, and the completion of the initial
firewall upgrade at ESO Headquarters.
In addition, IT expanded server virtualisa-
tion to reduce the physical overhead,
upgraded the email infrastructure and the
web content management systems, and
revised security.
IT also finalised a Frame Contract for
Microsoft licenses, selected a supplier
for the ESO and ALMA Science Archive
nodes, and amended the IT service
­provider contract to provide improved
on-site support.
ESO/P.Horálek
ESO Annual Report 2017 83
 G. Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com)/ESO

84
ESO Annual Report 2017
The VLT, VST and ATs at the top of Cerro Paranal.
VISTA can also be seen, in the distance, on the
next mountain peak.

ESO Annual Report 2017 85

 Administration
P. Horálek/ESO
The Directorate of Administration com-
prises ESO’s administration in Garching
and in Chile. The functions include
human resources, financial services,
contracts and procurement, facility
management, logistics and transport,
safety coordination, the Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) services and
the operation of the ESO Guesthouse
in Santiago. The construction of the
ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor
Centre is managed by the Directorate
in cooperation with the education
and Public Outreach Department. The
Director of Administration is the Site
Safety Responsible at Garching,
­Vitacura and the Santiago Guesthouse,
and represents ESO at ALMA’s Head
of Administration meetings as well
as in CERN Pension Fund matters.
The Administration Office is in charge
of the organisation of the Finance
Committee meetings.
Following Patrick Geeraert’s departure
from ESO at the end of August, Claudia
Burger, who was previously at the
European X-ray free-electron laser
(European XFEL) facility, took up office
as the new Director of Administration
in mid-October. The interim period
ESO/F. Reckmann
was covered by Jean-Michel Bonneau
as deputy.
Highlights in 2017 included a major
upgrade of the ERP system with sev-
eral improvements and new features,
the signature of the second-biggest
ELT contract for the polishing of the
M1 mirror, and major progress in the
construction of the Supernova, includ-
ing some first visits with planetarium
shows ahead of its inauguration in
April 2018.
The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre
at sunset.
Several major ELT contracts were signed
in 2017, including the M1 Polishing con-
tract with Reosc (France), the second-
biggest ELT contract with a value in the
range of 100 million euros. In total, 88%
of the material budget of the ELT has now
been contracted.
Together with Industrial Liaison Officers
from the respective countries, the Con-
tracts and Procurement Department
organised Industry Days for Finland,
France, Poland and Switzerland. The
company representatives received infor-
mation on ESO, its procurement process
and its technologies, especially the ELT.
Council approved “Best Value for Money”
as an additional adjudication principle for
ESO contracts; implementation will take
place over the course of 2018.
The ERP group completed a major
upgrade, implementing a new version
which went online in August 2017. This
live rollout was successful and the feed-
back received from users was very posi-
tive. The most noticeable improvements
are a friendlier user interface and access
via a web browser. Several further new
features were also implemented, for
example, the uploading of electronic
invoices and the integration of the Visiting
Astronomers database.
Safety provided advice to the ELT Dome
PDR so as to detect potential safety-
related shortcomings. The technical ser-
vice corporation TÜV (Germany) carried
out a number of safety tours focusing on
laboratories and the assembly hall, and
made recommendations.
In 2017, the façade works for the ESO
Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre
were finished and its interior was com-
pleted. The installation work for the
­exhibition started and all planetarium
­systems were tested. First visits, includ-
ing a planetarium show, took place for
science journalists and school classes.
At the Santiago office, the cafeteria in
the main building re-opened in August
after being expanded and refurbished
to accommodate the growing number
of staff.
Cleaning the façade
of the ESO Supernova
Planetarium & Visitor
Centre.
Tim de Zeeuw and
­Patrick Geeraert at the
opening cocktail recep-
tion of the newly extend-
ed cafeteria ­during their
final visit to the Vitacura
offices as Director
­G eneral and Director of
Administration.
ESO Annual Report 2017 87
Finance and Budget

Financial Statements 2017

Accounting Statements 2017

(in €1000)

Statement of Financial Position 31.12.2017 31.12.2016 Cash Flow Statement 2017 2016

Assets Cash Flow

Cash and cash equivalents 96 949 79 268 Net receipts 221 302 214 821
Inventories, receivables, advances and other 125 385 81 934 Net payments – 203 621 – 190 606
current assets Net Cash Flow from Operating Activities 17 681 24 215
Non-current assets 1 110 911 1 106 920
Total Assets 1 333 245 1 268 122 Net Cash Flow from Financing Activities 0 0

Liabilities Net Cash Flow = 17 681 24 215

Short-term borrowing 0 0 Net Increase/Decrease in Cash and Cash Equivalents
Payables, advances received and other 163 814 123 511
current liabilities
Non-current liabilities 546 843 567 611
Total Liabilities 710 657 691 122

Accumulated surpluses/deficits 577 000 569 610

Pension fund loss/gain 44 342 – 11 147
Other changes in net assets 979 22 570
Net surplus/deficit for the year 267 – 4 033
Total Net Assets 622 588 577 000

Total Liabilities and Net Assets 1 333 245 1 268 122

Statement of 2017 2016

Financial Performance

Operating Revenue
Contributions from Member States 164 959 158 533
Contributions to special projects 17 616 17 668
In-kind contributions 8 464 6 277
Sales and service charges 1 961 1 778
Other revenue 2 176 2 008
Total Operating Revenue 195 176 186 264

Operating Expenses
Installations and equipment 2 515 2 939
Supplies and services 44 574 43 149
Personnel expenses 76 678 75 176
Depreciation of fixed assets 67 685 66 120
Other operating expenses 4 626 4 249
Total Operating Expenses 196 078 191 633

Net Surplus/Deficit from Operating Activities – 902 – 5 369

Financial revenue 3 077 3 776

Financial expenses 1 974 2 534
Net Surplus/Deficit from Financial Activities 1 103 1 242

Non-periodic and extraordinary revenue 70 94

Non-periodic and extraordinary expenses 4 0
Net Surplus/Deficit from Non-periodic and 66 94
Extraordinary Activities

Net Surplus/Deficit for the Period 267 – 4 033

88 ESO Annual Report 2017

Budgetary Reports 2017 Budget for 2018
(in €1000) (in €1000)

Income Budget Actual Budget Income Budget 2018 (Approved)

Contributions from Member States 208 047 194 388 Contributions from Member States 196 143
Income from partnerships 1 973 1 970 Income from partnerships 10 395
Income from third parties 9 755 3 782 Income from third parties 2 951
Other income 2 488 1 243 Other income 3 122
Consolidated entities 2 254 612 Consolidated entities 2 379
Total Income Budget 224 517 201 995 Total Income Budget 214 990

Expenditure Budget Expenditure Budget 2018 (Approved)

Programme 95 365 133 223 Programme 172 917
Technical infrastructure and production 6 945 8 825 Technical infrastructure and production 8 990
Operations 72 869 75 585 Operations 73 398
Science support 9 163 10 068 Science support 10 626
General activities 25 265 27 195 General activities 28 670
Cherenkov Telescope Array 374 0 Cherenkov Telescope Array 44
Financing cost 24 39 Financing cost 510
Consolidated entities 1 707 686 Consolidated entities 1 697
Total Expenditure Budget 211 712 255 621 Total Expenditure Budget 296 852

The External Auditors from the National
Audit Office of Finland* have expressed
their opinion that the financial statements
for 2017 give a true and fair view of the
affairs of the Organisation.
The accounting statements for 2017
show a surplus of 0.3 million euros com-
pared to a deficit of 4.0 million euros in
2016. Operating activities ended with a
deficit of 0.9 million euros which was more
than compensated for by a net surplus
from financial activities, mainly income
from bank interest and positive exchange
rate impacts, and a small net surplus from
non-periodic and extraordinary income.
The net assets of the Organisation
have increased by 45.6 million euros to
622.6 million euros at 31 December 2017,
mainly caused by the positive impact
of the revaluation of the Organisation’s
pension liabilities, which are held in
Swiss francs.
Increased receipts from the Member
States related to the ELT contributions
and only a moderate increase in pay-
ments provided a positive cash flow in
2017 of 17.7 million euros. The cash
position at 31 December 2017 stood at
96.9 million euros.
ESO Council approved the budget for
2018 in December 2017. The approved
2018 expenditure budget amounts to
296.9 million euros, reflecting a consider-
able increase compared to 2017. This
is almost entirely driven by the increasing
expenditure for the ELT Phase 1. In Decem-
ber 2017, ESO Council also approved
the full M1 mirror for the ELT, which had
previously formed part of the ELT Phase 2.
The associated expenditure will start in
2019.
The approved income budget for 2018
amounts to 215.0 million euros. This
comprises the regular contributions from
the ESO Member States and includes
their additional contributions for the ELT,
income from third parties and partners
and other income.
In 2017 ESO entered into a strategic part-
nership with Australia. The associated
contributions, as well as some remaining
funding from the Klaus Tschira Stiftung
for the ESO Supernova Planetarium &
Visitor Centre, are included in the 2018
income budget.

* Jari Sanaskoski (Director for Financial Audit),

­Pontus Londen (Principal Financial Auditor),
­Pauliina Mikkola (Senior Auditor, Financial Audit).

ESO Annual Report 2017 89

ESO/P. Horálek

90 ESO Annual Report 2017

The La Silla Observatory.

ESO Annual Report 2017 91

Human Resources
The Human Resources (HR) Department
manages all services connected to
employment at ESO, from the definition
of applicable policies to the execution
and conclusion of employment contracts.
Within this remit, and in compliance with
ESO’s Staff Rules and Regulations, HR
manages the following tasks:
– planning and definition of policies and
strategies for personnel resources;
– coordination of recruitment and selec-
tion to ensure diverse and talented staff;
– payroll and general compensation
according to benefits and entitlements;
– supporting employees with regard to
the implementation of the applicable
rules, regulations and contractual
terms;
– training and professional development;
– maintenance and storage of personnel
records;
– occupational health and welfare;
– social security matters;
– family matters connected with employ-
ment contracts, including day-care and
education provision at the European
School Munich.
Recruitment, selection and ­reassignment
During 2017, HR published 49 vacancy
notices, prompting a total of 1219 appli-
cations. The number of completed
recruitments according to contract type
were:
Contract type No. of
campaigns applications
International Staff Members 33
Local Staff Members 10
Fellows 13
All positions were advertised on the
ESO Recruitment Portal. For International
Staff Member positions, notifications
were sent to all members of Council, the
Finance Committee and the delegates of
other ESO committees, as well as to
national and international research centres
and observatories. In addition, promi-
nent advertisements for selected posi-
tions were placed in appropriate special-
ist publications and on recruitment web
pages. All ESO advertisements contain
a statement regarding the Organisation’s
commitment to equal opportunities.
92 ESO Annual Report 2017
The Foundation for Science and Tech­
nology of the Portuguese Ministry of
­Education and Science advocated for
on-the-job training opportunities within
the Directorate of Engineering and
­Directorate for Science. Two training
opportunities associated with this were
agreed upon in 2017.
Staff departures
The departures of staff in 2017 fall into
the following categories:
Reasons International Local Staff
Staff Member Member
Resignation 1 3
Expiry of contract 7 –
Retirement 3 2
Disability or mutual agreement 1 –
Total 12
Employee relations and communications
In 2017, three staff members celebrated
25 years of service and one celebrated
35 years of service.
After elections in September, the new
International Staff Association (see p. 118)
began regular meetings with the ESO
management to discuss improvements
regarding specific diversity and family-
friendly policies.
No. of Followed by the signature of the collec-
tive contracts for Local Staff Members,
619
running from December 2016 to Decem-
429
ber 2019, different working groups devel-
213
oped on new articles regarding the fol-
lowing topics: transportation to and from
pick-up points; the quality and type of
working clothes; the impact of night shifts
on health; Day and Night Operations
­support shift coordinators; emergency
transpor­tation; accident insurance cover-
age; and redrafting of the Spanish text.
Review of regulations for Local Staff
Members in Chile
A working group led by the Director of
Administration, with representatives from
Local Staff Members and the unions at
Paranal and La Silla (see p. 119), contin-
ued the review of regulations for the
Local Staff Members in Chile in light of
developments in Chilean labour law.
The conclusion of the review is expected
in 2018.
Performance Management and
­Professional Development plan
Selected staff members tested an elec-
tronic tool for Performance Management
and Professional Development between
2015 and 2016. Further evaluation in
2017 indicated that additional develop-
ment would be needed before it can be
implemented.
Learning and professional development
5
HR continued to deliver a wide range of
development activities according to the
Training Catalogue and the Fellow Devel-
opment Programme.
The trend continues towards individual-
ised trainings with shorter modules of
half days, which offers more flexibility to
the staff but does not replace more
intense programmes. Additionally, HR
offered drop-in talks and awareness
­sessions open to all staff. A special focus
was on the “Alcohol and Drugs Misuse”
and the “Fair Treatment, Courtesy and
Respect” policies.
2017 Learning and Development activities:
No. of staff members Equivalent
participating to (hours)
ESO Chile 135 1409
ESO Garching 236 1735
Health and welfare and social security
The annual CERN Pension Fund Infor­
mation Meeting took place at ESO Head-
quarters in October.
The yearly review with the health care
provider Cigna took place in October,
resulting in minor amendments to
the scheme. The individual insurance
­premium remains unchanged.
Spain Finland Local
8.5% 0.2% Staff
Members
Denmark France Students 23.6%
1.4% 15 .1% 5.3%

Germany United
30.0% Kingdom Paid ­International
9.6% Associates Staff
Switzerland 2.3% Members
0.5% Italy 62.7%
16.1%
Fellows
Belgium The Netherlands 6.0%
3.0% 3.2%

Austria Poland
1.1% 1.1%

Other Sweden Portugal Left: Distribution of Above: ESO personnel by category. In 2017, 695
8.9% 0.5% 0.7% International Staff Mem- members of staff were employed at ESO, including
bers by Nationality. 436 International Staff and 164 Local Staff Members.

Collaboration and representation of HR
As an observer in the Gender Equality
Network in the European Research
Area (GENERA) Project, HR participated
in the fourth “Gender in Physics Day”
on 27 January 2017. The organisers pre-
sented comparisons of demographics,
policies and initiatives from five EIROforum
organisations (ESO, ESA, the European
Synchrotron Radiation Facility [ESRF],
European XFEL and the European Organi-
zation for Nuclear Research [CERN]), all
of which share similar challenges. In the
discussion panel, the HR managers
agreed that “Gender equality in physics
needs to become an everyday concern”,
and that “more actions to promote
­Science, Technology, Engineering, Math-
ematics (STEM) careers to young female
students are vital”.
HR represented ESO at the Administrative
Board Meeting of the European School
Munich (ESM) in September. 92 pupils
were registered for the academic year
2017/2018.
Since May, ESO has had a contract with
an agency to help staff in Garching to
find suitable childcare solutions such as
day nurseries or babysitters.
HR continued to participate in regular
meetings of the HR Advisory Group of
the JAO in order to discuss and resolve
personnel issues of common interest.
HR participated in ESO’s Diversity and
Inclusion Committee whose mission it is
to advance diversity and inclusion at all
levels in ESO (p. 120).
Girls’ Day at ESO Headquarters
On 27 April, ESO took part in the 17th
Girls’ Day. Since 2001, a total of 1.5 mil-
lion girls have participated in the German
nationwide event at which enterprises,
universities and research organisations
offer approximately 10 000 events aimed
at female students aged between 14
and 17. These open events help girls to
make well-informed decisions about their
future and encourage them to choose
careers in science and technology. The
Girls’ Day event at ESO Headquarters in
Garching was fully booked, with 48 partic-
ipants, and included two workshops, one
about astronomy and one about engineer-
ing. There were 5–6 stations with differ-
ent activities, some of which were hands-
on and others had a more theoretical
approach.

As an active partner in the Munich Dual

Career Office, ESO HR benefits from
broad networking capabilities. The aim is
to support the spouses of ESO interna-
tional employees in their search for jobs
in the Munich area.

HR was invited by the Federal Depart-

ment of Foreign Affairs in Switzerland to
represent ESO at the International Career
Day in Bern, with the aim of attracting
new staff members. It was attended by
On 21 April 2017,
54 international organisations and approx- ESO was among
imately 2000 visitors. As the only event over 50 international
in Switzerland exclusively devoted to inter- organisations that
national organisations, it provides an presented their
work and career
opportunity for motivated graduates to opportunities at the
meet with recruitment specialists from International Career
these organisations. Day in Bern.

ESO Annual Report 2017 93

ESO/G. Beccari

94 ESO Annual Report 2017

The Orion Nebula and associated cluster of young
stars captured by OmegaCAM on the VLT Survey
Telescope.
Organigram

Organisational Structure December 2017

Office of the Director General

Director General
Xavier Barcons Executive Office Office of Representation Internal
Laura Comendador in Chile Auditor
Frutos Fernando Comerón Elena Llopis

Directorate of Directorate of Directorate of Directorate of Directorate for

Administration Engineering Programmes Operations Science
Claudia Burger Michèle Péron Adrian Russell Andreas Kaufer Robert Ivison

Data ALMA
Contracts and Information E-ELT La Silla Paranal Project
Management Support Centre
Procurement Technology Programme Observatory Science
& Operations Leonardo Testi
Arnout Tromp Dieter Suchar Roberto Tamai Andreas Kaufer Vacant
Michael Sterzik (interim)

Facility, Control Armazones Science Back-end Observing

ALMA
Logistics, Software & Instrumentation Operations Operations Programmes
Computing
Transport Engineering Programme Paranal Martino Office
Erich Schmid
Erich Siml Jochen Haucke Mark Casali Steffen Mieske Romaniello Ferdinando Patat

Paranal Maintenance, Education and

Electronic User Support ALMA Technical
Finance Instrumentation Support Public Outreach
Engineering Marina Support
Renate Brunner Programme and Engineering Lars Lindberg
Christian Lucuix Rejkuba Silvio Rossi
Luca Pasquini Maxime Boccas Christensen

Technology Logistics and ALMA Regional Office for

Human Mechanical
Development Facilities Paranal Centre Science
Resources Engineering
Programme Christine Garching
Heidi Schmidt Franz Koch Martin Zwaan
Mark Casali Desbordes Eric Emsellem

Infrastructure Office for Science

Optical Project
Chile La Silla Chile
Engineering Management
Jean-Michel Ivo Saviane Claudio De
Samuel Lévêque Florian Kerber
Bonneau Figueiredo Melo

Science
Operation APEX
Software Thomas Klein
Pascal Ballester

System
Engineering
Françoise
Delplancke-
Ströbele

The entrance of the Paranal Residencia at night,

­illuminated by the Milky Way.

96 ESO Annual Report 2017

 Y. Beletsky (LCO)/ESO

ESO Annual Report 2017 97

Office of the Director General
ESO/M. Zamani
ESO/M. Zamani

98 ESO Annual Report 2017

In October 2017, the Office of the Director
General (ODG) was set up to consolidate
various activities that are under the direct
authority of the Director General (i.e., not
delegated to the Directors), including
­corporate and horizontal activities across
all Directorates. The ODG includes those
activities previously carried out by the
Cabinet of the Director General, as well
as Internal Audit and the Representation
in Chile, and is organised as described
below.
Executive Office (ODG-X)
This supports the Director General with
his internal and external duties and
includes the following units:
– The Legal and Institutional Affairs (LIA)
unit advises and assists the Director
General with matters concerning the
Organisation’s institutional relations,
protocol and diplomacy, defends ESO’s
legal interests, and provides legal advice.
– The Internal Communication Office
(ICO) is responsible for strengthening
and coordinating internal communica-
tion, ensuring that ESO staff have
access to accurate and timely organi-
sational information and encouraging
communication and information sharing
across the entire Organisation.
– The Corporate Policies & Risks Man-
agement (CPRM) unit deals with corpo-
rate risk management, personal data
protection, data classification, corpo-
rate policies, and intellectual property
­matters, including technology and
knowledge protection and licensing.
ODG-X also supports Council with the
development and implementation of
ESO’s strategy when required and pro-
vides executive and secretarial support
to the Director General, Council, the
Directors’ Team, and other auxiliary
­bodies. It is also responsible for editing
the ESO Annual Report, The Messenger
and the ESO Science Newsletter.
On 1 September 2017, Xavier Barcons (lower image)
became ESO’s eighth Director General, succeeding
Tim de Zeeuw (upper image) who has served since
2007. Both stand in front of the prototype mirror
­segment for the ELT, which was signed in 2012 by
all of the ESO Member States at the time.
Representation in Chile (ODG-R)
ODG-R represents ESO and the
­Director General in interactions with
the Chilean governmental, regional
and local authorities, as well as with
diplomatic missions in Chile. It coor­
dinates the representation of ESO’s
political and legal interests in Chile and
promotes ESO’s positive relationship
with Chile at all levels — government,
research organisations, universities,
and society at large.
In October 2017, an International Rela-
tions Team (IRT) was set up, with the
following goals:
– formulating ESO’s policy in interna-
tional relations, in line with guidance
set out by the ESO Council;
–o  rganising and coordinating relations
with Member States and their national
science communities as well as
with prospective Member States or
partners and international scientific
organisations;
– promoting the ESO programme within
the international scientific community;
– Representing ESO in various external
bodies and boards.
The IRT is chaired by the Director
General and includes two senior
astronomers from the Directorate for
Science (including the Director for
­Science), two members from the LIA
(including its head) and the ESO
­Representative in Chile.
Internal Audit Office (ODG-A)
ODG-A reviews the reliability and
integrity of financial information, the
efficiency and economy of resource
management, and compliance with
ESO’s rules and regulations. It carries
out an independent, objective assur-
ance and consulting activity designed
to add value and improve the Organi-
sation’s operations and was estab-
lished to assist all levels of manage-
ment in the Organisation, as well as to
support external auditors. Although
reporting to the Director General, the
Head of ODG-A also has a direct line
to the Council President, in particular
when dealing with audits affecting the
Director General or the ODG.
Legal and Institutional Affairs
In 2017, one of the major focuses of the
LIA office was the CTA project; ESO
attends the CTA Council meetings as an
observer. Discussions on the status of
CTA in Chile, the scientific and technical
collaborations between the project and
Chile, and the establishment of an ERIC
(European Research Infrastructure
Organisation) as the legal entity for CTA
and ESO’s par­ticipation in it, continued
to progress throughout the year.
Along with the finalisation of the agree-
ment on the extension of the APEX
­project, which was signed in May 2017,
the LIA office assisted the Director of
the LPO with drafting, negotiating and
finalising several agreements to host
other scientific projects in Chile. Agree-
ments were signed with the following
bodies: ESA for the Test Bed Telescope;
the German Space Agency (DLR) for
a project to a
­ nalyse OH airglow; and
NOVA for the BlackGEM project, a wide-
field telescope array aiming to follow
up gravitational wave detections. Agree-
ments were also reached to install the
ULTRACAM instrument at the NTT
and for a small solar ­telescope for the
HARPS instrument.
As one of the steps towards the imple-
mentation of an ALMA Trilateral Agree-
ment, the East Asian Executive NAOJ
was incorporated as a shareholder in
the Chilean company holding the ALMA
concessions alongside ESO and the
North American Executive, Association
of Universities Inc. (AUI).
In Chile, the decree for the enlargement
of the Area of Scientific Interest at
­Armazones was issued and published
on 14 September 2017. With this mile-
stone, the complete area for the ELT is
now officially registered as protected
against mining-related activities. On the
other hand, some areas surrounding
La Silla that were previously used for an
airstrip, but had since fallen into disuse,
have been returned to Chile in order to
build a photovoltaic plant.
As in previous years, the LIA supported
the Human Resources, Finance, and
the Contracts and Procurement depart-
ments with various legal matters. The
ESO Annual Report 2017 99

ESO/A. Kaufer
In May 2017, in a ceremony at Chalmers University
of Technology in Gothenburg, an extension of the
agreement between the partners of the APEX was
signed, ensuring that this very productive collabora-
tion will continue until the end of 2022.
ongoing review of the rules for Local Staff
Members in Chile should be highlighted,
as well as contractual questions, particu-
larly those regarding financing and pro-
curement contracts for the ELT.
Signature ceremony with SCHOTT for ELT primary
mirror segment blanks. Tim de Zeeuw, ESO’s
­Director General, appears in the centre, with Thomas
Westerhoff, Director Strategic Marketing Zerodur
for SCHOTT, to the left and Christoph Fark, Execu-
tive Vice President Advanced Optics of SCHOTT, on
the right.
ESO/M. Zamani
100 ESO Annual Report 2017
Internal Communication Office
The Internal Communication Office (ICO)
continued to produce, edit and publish
ESO internal announcements and the
weekly internal newsletter, the newsletter
serving as the official channel for internal
ESO-wide news. Approximately 400
announcements were published during
the year. In collaboration with the ELT
Programme, ICO introduced a new series
of regular internal updates regarding
ELT construction, covering not just big
milestones, but also the equally important
background work, in order to keep all
staff aware of the latest news from this
key programme.
The ESO Annual Overview 2017 was
organised by ICO from 13 to 15 March
2017 across all sites, with the theme:
“Challenges and opportunities in the
­context of the ESO Long-Term Perspec-
tives”. In a series of talks over three half-
days, speakers from across the Organi-
sation discussed the challenges and
opportunities that ESO will face over the
next fifteen years, considering the pro-
gramme set out in the Long-Term Per-
spectives document. The topics covered
a broad range of scientific, technical,
operational and administrative areas.
The talks were accessible to a wide audi-
ence, not only experts. As part of the
event, staff in Garching enjoyed a screen-
ing of the movie “MUSE — the cosmic
time machine”, with a second screening
arranged in Vitacura later in the year.
ICO, working with other colleagues in
Garching, led the organisation of the
­conference: “Reaching New Heights in
Astronomy — Celebrating ESO’s achieve-
ments and perspectives from 10 years of
Tim de Zeeuw as Director General”, on the
occasion of Tim de Zeeuw’s departure
from ESO. The conference took place
between 28 and 30 August 2017, with over
20 high-level speakers giving talks on top-
ics ranging from ESO’s programmes to
ESO’s connections with the wider scien-
tific landscape and including results from
the forefront of astronomical research. The
conference dinner was particularly spe-
cial as it included a party for all ESO staff.
Signature ceremony with Safran Reosc for produc-
tion of ELT primary mirror segments. Tim de Zeeuw,
ESO’s Director General, appears on the right and
Philippe Rioufreyt, Chief Executive Officer, Safran
Reosc, on the left.
ESO/M. Zamani
Group photo of the participants in the conference
“Reaching New Heights in Astronomy 2017 — Cele-
brating ESO’s achievements and perspectives from
10 years of Tim de Zeeuw as Director General”.
A series of Spanish talks called “Astrono-
my for Everyone” and aimed at a general
internal audience continued in Vitacura in
2017. In addition, the popular “What ESO
Really Does” series of informal staff talks
was restarted in Garching, with the first
presentation entitled, “Engineering of the
39-metre Segmented ELT Primary Mirror”.
For the second year in a row, ICO sup-
ported the internal contest “Stories from
the Stars”, in which staff based in Chile
practised their writing skills by entering
very short stories of up to 100 words on
themes inspired by ESO.
Corporate Policies & Risks Management
In 2017, one of the most demanding
areas for the Corporate Policies & Risks
Management (CPRM) unit — called Risk
and IP Management until September
2017 — was the management of ESO’s
intellectual property (IP). ESO follows a
conservative but successful strategy in
this area by protecting and licensing its
in-house developments while evaluating
the cost to benefit ratio. In 2017, the
main addition to the ESO IP portfolio was
a patent application covering a support
system with earthquake protection tech-
nology. More information about ESO’s IP
management is available via the following
website: http://www.eso.org/public/
industry/techtrans/.
Regarding corporate policies, in 2017
ESO continued to work on the develop-
ment of personal data protection, fraud
prevention, and conflict-of-interest rules
for the Organisation. To ensure diversity
and inclusion within ESO, a working
group was set up to develop strategy and
­recommendations for implementation
(p. 116), and another working group
­delivered a report on the concept of an
Ombuds at ESO, at the request of the
ESO Director General, Xavier Barcons.
Corporate risk management focuses on
the maintenance of the Corporate Risk
Register. The ESO middle management
were involved in delivering information
about risks and opportunities to the ESO
Directors in 2017.
ESO maintains a set of non-life insurance
policies, with the support of an insurance
broker company. The current contract
with the insurance broker runs out in
2018, so ESO published a competitive
tender in 2017 to find a new broker.
International Affairs
2017 saw several highlights related to
international relations at ESO. On 11 July
2017, an Arrangement was signed to
begin a ten-year strategic partnership
between Australia and ESO. The signature
ceremony involved Australia’s Minister
for Industry, Innovation and Science,
Arthur Sinodinos and ESO’s Director
General, Tim de Zeeuw. It was held at the
Australian National University in Canberra
during the annual meeting of the Astro-
nomical Society of Australia. This strate-
gic partnership gives Australia access to
the LPO for ten years as well as the same
ESO/European Commission
ESO’s Director General,
Xavier Barcons (left),
met the European Com-
missioner for Research,
Science and Innovation,
Carlos Moedas (right).
ESO Annual Report 2017 101
benefits as a Member State with respect Left: Ceremony in C ­ anberra,

Australian Government
­Australia, where a ten-year strate-
to LPO matters only. The Arrangement
gic partnership between ESO and
also notes the intention of both parties to Australia was signed.The Australian
pursue Australian membership of ESO Minister for Industry, Innovation
in the future. Australian representatives and Science, Arthur Sinodinos
appears on the left and ESO’s
were also appointed to the ESO govern-
Director General, Tim de Zeeuw
ing bodies, Council, FC, the Scientific on the right.
Technical Committee (STC) and the UC,
and have participated in the correspond-
ing meetings.
Below: On Thursday 20 July 2017,
the Australian flag was flying at the
Another highlight was the announcement Headquarters in Garching for a
on 10 Oct 2017 by the Irish Deputy Prime visit to ESO by r­ epresentatives of
Minister and Minister for Business, Enter- the Australian Department of
prise and Innovation, Frances Fitzgerald, Industry, Innovation and Science
(DIIS), as well as the Australian
of her government’s commitment to join Embassies in Berlin and Brussels.
ESO as a Member State. The intention
is to join towards the end of 2018 after
the ratification by the Irish parliament and
approval by the ESO Council. ODG staff
engaged with Irish astronomers and
Department of Business, Enterprise and
Innovation (DBEI) officials to begin the
accession process and entry negotiations.
Teams were appointed from ESO man-
agement and Council, and DBEI, to begin
formal negotiations in January 2018.

Progress was also achieved in respect

of other prospective Member States. In
June 2017, the Norwegian Research
Council finalised their evaluation of a
­proposal to join ESO, submitted by the
University of Oslo in 2016. The Research
Council ultimately judged — despite a
very positive recommendation from an
expert scientific panel — that Norway
should not join ESO until such time as
there is a larger astronomical community
in the country. ODG staff have continued
discussions with the Norwegian astro-
nomical community to look for opportu­
nities for involvement with ESO.
ODG staff prepared a series of options to
provide clarity on the accession process
of Brazil, which were presented to Council
by the Director General on 6 December
2017. The ESO Executive will continue to
work with Council in early 2018 to reach a
satisfactory solution. Discussions contin-
ued with Hungarian astronomers, and the
Director of Konkoly Observatory visited
ESO Headquarters on 4 October 2017 to
meet the new Director General and report
on progress. The astronomical communi-
ty made an application to the Hungarian
National Research, Development and
Innovation Office requesting support for
ESO accession and it continues to seek
additional funding.
ODG staff and the Director for Science
attended the 2017 ASTRONET board
meeting. ASTRONET is a strategic coor-
dination mechanism for astronomy in
Europe and is preparing to develop the
next European Science Vision and Infra-
structure Roadmap for Astronomy, fol-
lowing on from the success of the original
2007 version, which was updated in
2013. On behalf of ASTRONET, ODG
staff also led the development of a posi-
tion paper on the future of European
Union astronomy funding. ESO’s Director
General delivered the paper to the EU
Commissioner for Research, Science and
Innovation Carlos Moedas on 19 Decem-
ber 2017 in Brussels.
ESO is an observer on the Astroparticle
Physics European Consortium (APPEC).
ODG staff attended APPEC Board meet-
ings to support the development of the
APPEC roadmap — the European Strate-
gy for Astroparticle Physics — which is
planned for release in 2018. The roadmap
lists CTA as a high priority.
ESO was represented at meetings of
the United Nations Committee on the
Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in February
and June 2017, during which ESO sup-
ported an IAU initiative on protecting the
“Dark and Quiet Skies”. ESO also support-
ed activities related to the International
Asteroid Warning Network and the Space
Missions Planning Advisory Group.
ESO held the chairmanship of EIROforum
until July 2017. In that capacity, ODG

102 ESO Annual Report 2017


Distinguished guests at the ELT First Stone ceremony.
From left to right, Roberto Tamai (ELT Programme
Manager at ESO), Paolo Astaldi (Chairman of Astaldi),
Tim de Zeeuw (ESO Director General), Michelle
Bachelet (President of the Republic of Chile), and
María Teresa Ruíz (President of the Chilean Academy
of Sciences).
staff organised the May bi-annual EIRO-
forum DG Assembly, at which the Direc-
tors General, or equivalent, of the eight
EIROforum organisations convene to dis-
cuss areas of shared interest and com-
mon challenges. The DG Assembly took
place in Brussels on 11 and 12 May 2017
and was also attended by Commissioner
Moedas; several key papers on European
research infrastructure policy were pre-
sented. A further EIROforum DG Assem-
bly took place in Heidelberg in November
2017 at which an EIROforum position
paper on the next European Union frame-
work programme funding (FP9) was dis-
cussed and approved for release.
On 16 March 2017, ESO held a consular
visit day, which was attended by more
than thirty consular representatives from
diplomatic missions based in Bavaria. The
aim of the visit was to raise ESO’s visibility
and to ensure that when politicians and
decision makers from various countries
visit Bavaria, the ESO Headquarters is
included in their tour. The consular visit
day also yielded several useful connec-
tions related to potential Member States.
Activities in Chile
The Representation in Chile coordinated
activities around the ELT First Stone cer-
emony that took place on 26 May 2017
in the presence of the President of the
Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet,
who had expressed a strong personal
interest in participating. The ceremony
was attended by more than 200 guests,
including three ministers of the Chilean
Government and other high-level govern-
ment and academic authorities, twelve
ambassadors from ESO Member States
and three former ESO Directors General,
as well as members of ESO’s governing
bodies, government officials of Member
States, leaders of major observatories
and astronomical organisations, and
managers of companies that are key to
the construction of the ELT. The ceremo-
ny was covered and reported in both the
national and international media.
The importance of ESO observatories as
a showcase of European and internation-
al cooperation continues to be highlight-
ed by visits by officials of Member States
and the Host State Chile to Paranal. In
2017 these included visits by: the Presi-
dent of the Senate of the Czech Republic
Milan Štěch; the Chilean Minister of
­Energy Andrés Rebolledo, when the con-
nection of Paranal and Armazones to the
power grid was inaugurated; and the
Director General of Foreign Policy at the
Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs Milenko
Skoknic. ESO also hosted a visit to ALMA
by the Director General of Ceremonial
and Protocol of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Gloria Navarrete. In addition,
the ESO offices in Santiago were visited
by a delegation of seven members of the
Committee of Industry, Research and
Energy of the European Parliament, which
SAESA
Chile’s Minister of Energy, Andrés Rebolledo (second
from the right in the picture) at the ceremony to mark
the connection of ESO’s Paranal and Armazones
sites to the Chilean national electricity grid.
led to a lively exchange on the societal
role of astronomy and the role played by
astronomical observatories in the devel-
opment of science in Chile.
In 2017 there was progress towards the
establishment of CTA-South in Paranal.
This requires an agreement between ESO
and the Government of Chile to ­recognise
the status of CTA-South as a facility of the
Paranal Observatory in order to qualify for
the special conditions under which ESO
operates in its Host State Chile. These
discussions are continuing between ESO
and the Chilean Government.
Chile is in the process of incorporating
astro-tourism as one of the elements with
which to promote the country’s image
worldwide, involving the international
observatories that it hosts. This is closely
linked to the perennial issue of the pro-
tection of sky quality, for which ESO pro-
vides support to the Chilean Govern-
ment’s initiatives through United Nations
agencies. ESO has been working closely
with the Chilean government, other inter-
national observatories, and public and
private institutions in both of these areas.
Cooperation with Chile continues through
several support programmes, most nota-
bly the popular fund managed by the
ESO-Chile Joint Committee for the devel-
opment of astronomy, which continues
to receive a large number of applications
ESO Annual Report 2017 103
(52 in 2017) for the implementation of
projects ranging from academic research
to engineering and outreach.
Internal Audit Office (ODG-A)
During 2017, the Internal Audit Office
­provided support to the external auditors
in the performance of their duties and
in the delivery of reports to the ESO
­governing bodies. Another regular activity
included the preparation of audit certifi-
cates for ESO partners. The Internal
Audit Office also performed several other
audits, including the audit of HR-related
contracts and an IT security audit, which
included a penetration test to evaluate
the security of ESO’s ERP system.
Safety
Safety actively supported the ELT project
in 2017, focusing on the preparations for
construction on site, and conducting
design reviews and follow up on preven-
tion, safety and compliance. This, togeth-
er with the compilation of the system-
wide ELT hazard and risk analysis, was
very much a cross-departmental effort,
where different directorates and disci-
plines contributed their expertise in gen-
eral safety, electrical engineering, fire pro-
tection and much more.
Ongoing prevention activities consisted
of defining new safety procedures and
updating them where necessary. In par-
ticular, the increasing use of lasers at
Paranal in 2017 required new safety pro-
cedures and the formation of a laser
safety committee that will improve coor-
dination and communication, from design
and manufacturing through to installation
and operation.
Other ongoing activities included design-
ing and delivering appropriate training
and drills (for example, fire drills), conduct-
ing and following up on-site inspections,
audits and tests. Concrete improvements
as a result of these activities included
protecting against falls in telescope
accesses, fire prevention in the oil tanks
of the hydraulic bearing system of UT1 —
currently being extended to the other
UTs — and extra lighting in the VLTI tunnel
and in the new Supernova building.
104 ESO Annual Report 2017
Regarding ALMA, ESO chaired the ALMA
Safety Advisory Group (ASAG) between
2016 and 2017. ASAG advises the ALMA
Director and the ALMA Directors Council
on safety, security and environment-­
related issues and improvements. Their
input was particularly solicited in respect
of an increase in vehicular accidents
and site clearance activities to dismantle
temporary structures and upgrade the
operational infrastructure.
The incident and accident figures for all
sites in 2017 remained well below those
of similar research institutions. ESO’s
commitment to safety, combined with its
modern infrastructure and good state
of maintenance largely contributed to this
satisfactory situation. However, there is
no room for complacency; while the
efforts at office sites focus on preventing
incidents on the way to work, operational
sites continuously monitor the risks of
slips and falls and, in the case of ALMA,
the traffic on the mountain road. Further-
more, given the ramping up of construc-
tion activities at Paranal, Armazones and
La Silla, it will be a challenge to maintain
these low numbers in the next years.
An ongoing challenge regarding safety
at ESO, as with any other organisation, is
that of communication, awareness and
compliance. In particular, in an interna-
tional setting where there is not an exact
application of national legislation, this
entails a large effort centred on commu-
nication, documentation and training.
Safety works on this continuously, provid-
ing appropriate guidance and argumen­
tation at all sites to further raise the levels
of prevention. With the Director General
accepting the role of Chair of the ESO
Safety Commission in 2017, ESO will take
a significant step forward in the implemen-
tation and integration of safety in its cor-
porate culture. In 2018, Safety will con­
tinue to support ESO programmes — the
ELT is the most prominent of these —
but not at the expense of other, smaller
projects. Safety will moreover continue
efforts to raise the standards of prepar-
edness, safety, environment and security
at all sites in Germany and Chile.
The VLT starts its nightly observations.
ESO Annual Report 2017
105
G. Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com)/ESO
 Organisational Matters
ESO/G. Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com)

106 ESO Annual Report 2017

Council
As its main governing body, the ESO
Council determines the policy of the
Organisation regarding scientific, tech­nical
and administrative matters. Both Council
and the Committee of Council (CoC) (the
informal body of Council) ­normally meet
twice a year. However, in 2017, there was
a need for two additional extraordinary
Council meetings in July and October.
Both ordinary Council meetings took
place in Garching on 31 May –1 June and
6 – 7 December. The first of the CoC meet-
ings was held in Prague on 7 – 8 March
where the delegates were welcomed by
their Czech colleagues. At the second
CoC meeting, delegates were invited
by the French delegation to the Centre
National d’Études Spatiales (CNES)
Headquarters in Paris on 10 –11 October;
this was also the first meeting attended
by the new Director General, Xavier
­Barcons. All meetings were chaired by
the Council President, Patrick Roche.
At the June meeting, the Council Presi-
dent and the ESO Director General pro-
vided an update on a range of ongoing
events and actions, and the respective
Directors and Heads of Department
­presented feedback on all aspects of
ESO’s programme, including the status
of La Silla Paranal, the ELT and ALMA.
Regarding the ELT, a proposed resolution
was reviewed, resulting in Council’s
authorising ESO — and, by implication,
the four instrument consortia — to pro-
ceed on the assumption that all ELT M1
segments (including the inner five rings
and seventh sector), as well as the second
M1 coating unit, would be in place at first
light. Council was delighted to approve
unanimously the initiation of a strategic
partnership with Australia for 10 years.
A presentation on the CERN Pension Fund
was given by Marcus Klug, the Council
appointee of the Governing Board of the
CERN Pension Fund. The Annual Report
was approved, as were the Financial
Statements for 2016 and the scale of con-
tributions for 2018. The incoming external
auditors, from Finland, were welcomed
The flags of the ESO Member States, at the entrance
to the ESO Headquarters in Garching, near Munich
(Germany).
and the External Audit Report approved,
with discharge being granted to the Council and Committee of Council 2017
Director General. To end the meeting, a
presentation was made to Tim de Zeeuw, President Patrick Roche (UK)
who was attending his last Council
­meeting as ESO Director General. His
Austria João Alves
achievements over the past 10 years
Daniel Weselka
resulted in ESO’s having the best facilities
available and Council expressed their Belgium Sophie Pireaux
gratitude for his many accomplishments. Christoffel Waelkens
Czech Republic Jan Buriánek
The final meeting of the year took place Jan Palouš
in Garching and a warm welcome was (Vice President)
extended to the Australian representa-
Denmark Uffe Jørgensen/Allan
tives, who were attending their first Coun-
Hornstrup
cil meeting as observers. The meeting René Michelsen
commenced with regular updates on the
ESO programme. After reviewing the Finland Anna Kalliomäki
Jari Kotilainen
financial plan and receiving a status report
from the Chair of the ELT Management France Denis Mourard/Guy Perrin
Advisory Committee, Council authorised Laurent Vigroux
additional spending to cover the cost of
Germany Thomas Roth
the inner five rings of segments for the
Linda Tacconi
primary mirror of the ELT, as well as a set
of 133 spare mirror segments (one sixth Italy Nicolò D’Amico
of the total M1), and an additional M1 Matteo Pardo
­mirror segment coating unit. Approval
The Netherlands Konrad Kuijken
was given for the ESO Budget 2018 and Mirjam Lieshout-Vijverberg
Forward Look 2019 – 2021 within discus-
sions related to finance. Poland Konrad Dębski
Marek Sarna
Elections took place for the appointment Portugal Paulo Ferrão
of personnel to various ESO Committees, Paulo Garcia
including the ALMA Board, Finance
Spain Rafael Bachiller
­Committee, Observing Programmes
Inmaculada Figueroa
Committee, Scientific Technical Commit-
tee and the Tripartite Group. This meeting Sweden Hans Olofsson
marked the completion of Patrick Roche’s Catarina Sahlberg
and Jan Palouš’s tenure as Council Presi-
Switzerland Willy Benz
dent and Vice President respectively, and Bruno Moor
Council elected Willy Benz and Catarina
Sahlberg to these positions, with effect United Kingdom Simon Morris
Colin Vincent
from 1 January 2018. Delegates also took
the occasion to meet their national staff
members at ESO, with the Council Presi- Observers
dent joining those personnel who were
Australia Matthew Colless
not Member State nationals. A presenta-
Sue Weston
tion was made to Patrick Roche on his (as of September 2017)
departure and both Council and ESO
expressed their gratitude for his dedicat-
ed and effective leadership over the past
three years.
ESO Annual Report 2017 107
Finance Committee

The ESO FC has overall responsibility The 149th extraordinary FC meeting in

Finance Committee 2017 for advising Council on all matters of September was the first to be attended
administrative and financial management. by an Australian observer and focused
Chair Inmaculada Figueroa In 2017, it held one extraordinary meeting on the preparation of the 2018 budget.
(Spain) and two ordinary meetings. All meetings
were held in Garching and chaired by At its 150th meeting in November, FC
Inmaculada Figueroa. At the meetings, the recommended several items for approval
Austria Sabine Hertgen
FC received information on recent devel- by Council, including the 2018 budget,
Belgium Alain Heynen opments at ESO, including CERN Pension the Adjustment of Remuneration for ESO
Fund matters and the procurement sta- International Staff for 2018, a financial
Czech Republic Pavel Křeček
tistics and industrial return coefficients. plan for the procurement of the full prima-
Denmark René Michelsen ry mirror (M1) of the ELT, the addition of
Australia nominated an observer, Brad the “Best Value for Money” policy as an
Finland Sirpa Nummila (Vice-chair) Medland, to the FC after the conclusion alternative method to the “Lowest Com-
of the arrangement of a strategic partner- pliant Tender” in procurement and the
France Anne-Hélène Bouillon
ship with Australia in July. extension of the progressive retirement
Germany Gisela Schmitz-DuMont programme by another year.
Bastian Rottländer (as of At its 148th meeting in May, the FC
August 2017)
approved several contracts, including In total, the FC approved 18 contracts
Italy Salvatore Vizzini a contract for the publication of the exceeding 500 000 euros, ten amend-
Astronomy & Astrophysics journal (A&A). ments to existing contracts and six
The Netherlands Thijs Geurts On the first day of the meeting, the ­single-source procurements exceeding
­delegates visited the Technical Building 250 000 euros. Two of the contracts
Poland Konrad Dębski
and were given an insight into the devel- and one amendment were approved by
Portugal Filipa Batista Coelho opment work for the ELT. This was the written procedure.
last meeting for Tim de Zeeuw (Director
Spain Fernando Mérida
­General), Patrick Geeraert (Director of
Sweden Katrin Brandt Administration) and Gisela Schmitz-
DuMont (German delegate). The chair
Switzerland Astrid Vassella thanked them for their fruitful collabora-
tion over the years.
United Kingdom Maggie Collick

ESO/L. Calçada/ACe Consortium

Observer

Australia Brad Medland (as of

August 2017)

This artist’s rendering of ESO’s Extremely Large

­Telescope (ELT) is based on the detailed construction
design for the telescope.

108 ESO Annual Report 2017

Scientific Technical Committee
The Scientific Technical Committee 2017
Chair Sofia Feltzing (Sweden)
Austria Franz Kerschbaum
Belgium Hans Van Winckel (LSP)
Czech Republic Pavel Jáchym
Denmark Jes K. Jörgensen (ESAC)
Finland Alexis Finoguenov (LSP)
France Anne-Marie Lagrange
(ESC, Chair)
Germany Matthias Steinmetz (ESC)
Italy Livia Origlia
The Netherlands Eline Tolstoy (LSP)
Poland Grzegorz Pietrzyński
Portugal André Moitinho (LSP)
Spain Almudena Alonso-Herrero
(ESC)
Switzerland Francesco Pepe
United Kingdom Ian Smail (ESAC)
Chile Neil Nagar
Members at Large
Warrick Couch (Australia)
John D. Monnier (USA, LSP Chair)
Eva Schinnerer (Germany, ESAC Chair)
Gillian Wright (UK, LSP)
Observer
Australia Michael Ireland (as of
October 2017)
The STC advises Council and the Director
General on scientific and technical priori-
ties for ESO’s projects and programmes.
Much of the STC’s work is done in sub-
committees, including the European Sci-
ence Advisory Committee (ESAC) for
ALMA, the La Silla Paranal committee
(LSP) for LPO and the ELT sub-commit-
tee (ESC). These sub-committees meet
two weeks before each STC meeting,
enabling a greater focus on specific top-
ics, and increasing the amount available
for discussions during the main meeting.
89th STC meeting
The 89th meeting of the STC was like no
other in recent memory; the meeting was
held on Paranal over 23  –  24 April 2017
with the majority of the STC’s 21 mem-
bers, members at large, and observers in
attendance.
Despite their familiarity with ESO, this
was the first opportunity for many of the
participants to see the extraordinary team
effort that is required to produce the data
for the astronomical community. Guided
by the LPO Director, the VLTI Programme
Scientist and the ESO Director General,
the STC witnessed the precision of the
VLTI delay lines, the complexity of the
MUSE instrument, the breathtaking sunset
on the Paranal platform, and the beauty
of the four lasers of the AOF in operation
at the beginning of the night.
STC members also spent time in the con-
trol room, talking with ESO staff astrono-
mers, postdoctoral fellows and visiting
astronomers. Two fellows, ­Elizabeth
­Bartlett (ESO Chile Fellow) and Hugo
Messias (JAO Fellow) had the chance to
share their experiences as fellows in Chile.
The meeting began with a presentation
by Tim de Zeeuw, attending his last STC
meeting as ESO Director General. He
covered the most recent developments
of the ESO programme, setting the stage
for detailed presentations by ESO col-
leagues reporting on specific areas.
The STC heard that the ELT programme
was moving ahead at full speed. Several
contracts for critical components had
been signed recently and work was ongo-
ing on a number of subsystems. Instru-
ment consortia for the first-light instru-
ments, MICADO and HARMONI, were
working steadily towards PDR. The focus
of the meeting was firmly on the M1 mir-
ror; the two-part phased approach for its
construction had been found to impose
an extra burden on ESO and the instru-
ment teams, who had to consider two M1
options in their designs. There was strong
support for a proposal to remove this
uncertainty.
ALMA continued to showcase impressive
results in a range of fascinating areas
including the early Universe, stellar physics
and planetary formation. The STC was told
how ALMA had joined a worldwide VLBI
campaign in April 2017 to observe the
Galactic Centre with unprecedented reso-
lution. The data from all sites were in the
process of being correlated and analysed
and results were expected later in 2017.
Overall, ALMA data reduction and quality
assurance were reported to be proceed-
ing smoothly. While operations were
ramping up, technological developments
in the area of the receivers had also been
remarkable, and were being incorporated
into the new Band 5 and the proposed
Band 2+3. Ambitious upgrades of the
array, receivers and amplifiers were also
discussed to ensure the Observatory
remains state of the art.
The latest developments at the LPO (which
includes Paranal, La Silla and APEX) were
also showcased at the STC. Once more,
GRAVITY had exceeded expectations.
The AOF had been successfully commis-
sioned and science exploi­tation — first
with MUSE and later with HAWK-I — was
due to start in the second semester of
2017. New web-based preparation tools
had been deployed at Paranal to enhance
the user experience, to allow much more
flexible planning of observations and to
prepare for ELT operations.
Despite these impressive results there
was no time to rest; a clear roadmap for
the VLTI was presented, with exciting
prospects for the short- and long-term
future of interferometry at ESO. With all
the VLT foci being used, the VLT Pro-
gramme Scientist, Bruno Leibundgut, and
colleagues were considering the future of
LPO instrumentation, including upgrades
that would keep ESO’s instruments
ESO Annual Report 2017 109
competitive, instruments that should be
decommissioned to make room for new
ones and new instrumentation that would
have the greatest impact. Discussions
continued on these themes and how these
puzzles could be solved while keeping
the ELT as the top priority in ESO’s
­programme. While substantial work is
starting on the infrastructure at Paranal
in preparation for the ELT and CTA, the
Observatory faces the challenge of main-
taining state-of-the-art operations while
also being an active construction site.
Even ESO’s world-class telescopes and
instruments cannot do great science if
they do not attract exciting proposals from
ESO’s astronomical community. A lively
discussion took place when Ferdinando
Patat of the Observing Programmes
Office presented a set of innovative ideas
to the STC, which were originally pro-
posed to the Director for Science by the
Time Allocation Working Group (TAWG),
to improve the ways that astronomers
request time on ESO facilities.
The meeting finished at noon on 24 April,
before which the Chair of the STC thanked
the ESO Director General on behalf of the
STC for his remarkable leadership during
the last 10 years. However, the STC’s visit
was far from over. The whole group then
headed to Cerro Armazones, the home
of the ELT. On the way up, they saw the
substation that will connect P ­ aranal,
Armazones and CTA to the ­Chilean elec-
tricity grid. Up there on the ELT platform,
with Paranal in the distance, it was impos-
sible not to imagine the e­ xciting times
ahead and the future breakthroughs that
the ELT will enable.
From Armazones, members of the STC
made their way to San Pedro de Atacama
and to ALMA’s OSF. Gianni Marconi gave
them a tour of the Band 5 receiver integra-
tion laboratory and, for those who passed
the high-altitude medical, the high site
itself. While cold and windy, the sight of
the ALMA 12-metre array in a compact
configuration will stay in the visitors’
memories forever.
110 ESO Annual Report 2017
90th STC meeting
As usual, the 90th STC meeting was
­preceded by sub-committee meetings for
the ELT, ALMA and the LPO. The STC
meeting itself, held in Garching on 24 –  for three new senior positions, including
25 October 2017, was chaired for the last
time by Sofia Feltzing, and was the first
meeting for Xavier Barcons as ESO Direc-
tor General. This was also the first STC
meeting to be attended by Michael Ireland
(Australian National University) as an
observer under Australia’s strategic part-
nership with ESO.
The ELT team briefed the STC on pro-
gress over the previous six months, dur-
ing which time the project has ramped
up quickly in intensity. The “First Stone
ceremony” had been held at Paranal
Observatory on 26 May, at which point
the site was handed over for the con-
struction of the dome and telescope main
structure. The ESO Council authorised
work for the full M1 in June. On the
instrumentation side, the three first-light
instruments all had their PDRs scheduled
over the next 12 months.
Members of the STC were pleased
with the overall progress. A remaining
concern for the future was the uncer­
tainty around funding for the next instru-
ments, as well as in equipping the sec-
ond pre-focal station.
A status report on ALMA summarised
the conclusions from the previous cycles
and Cycle 4 that had just started. Pro-
gress had been made on observing
­programme completion rates, previously
an area of concern. In addition, the back-
log in data delivery had been overcome
after a significant investment of resources.
On the technical upgrade path, the ALMA
Programme Scientist, Leonardo Testi,
described progress with the future
Band 2+3 receivers (due in full production
between 2020 and 2022, if approved).
The ALMA programme was undergoing
substantial personnel changes while oper-
ations matured; in addition to a new incom-
ing ALMA director — Sean Dougherty
(from April 2018) — ALMA was looking
Heads of Science Operations, Engineer-
ing and Data Management. The STC com-
mended these positive developments and
passed on a number of user concerns
around data access and readiness.
The LPO overview highlighted several
upgrade and remedy projects at Paranal.
The most challenging aspect of the past
semester had been the bad weather
plaguing Chile and bringing 20 – 30%
weather losses over various telescopes.
A positive development was the restart
of regular coating on Paranal, with all
four VLT primary mirrors recoated over
the previous year.
The STC noted that all second-generation
VLT/VLTI instruments are now on Paranal.
ESPRESSO and MATISSE and new ob­­
serving modes (mostly associated with
the adaptive secondary mirror) were pow-
erful additions to the Observatory. Discus-
sion of new projects included a preview
of the next planned instrument: a visible-
light adaptive optics system, which would
be a first on an 8-metre telescope. In the
meantime, La Silla is expecting the next
“exoplanet machine” (NIRPS) and “tran-
sient machine” (SOXS), with both instru-
ments headed to final design reviews.
ESO also received two proposals for tele-
scopes to be hosted on La Silla, of which
one was recommended for approval: an
ESA project aimed at detecting near-Earth
objects and estimating the likelihood of
their impact and potential consequences.
Finally, APEX was reported to be under-
going a shutdown for several months to
be upgraded ahead of several more years
of operations.
Observing Programmes Committee
During its meetings in May and November,
The Observing Programmes Committee 2017 the OPC evaluated the proposals sub­
mitted for observations to be executed in
Periods 100 (1 October 2017 to 31 March
Suzanne Madden (Chair)
2018) and 101 (1 April to 30 September
Timo Prusti (Vice-Chair)
2018). The numbers of proposals for
Angela Bongiorno observations with ESO telescopes in
Sylvain Bontemps these two periods were 894 and 899,
Christopher Conselice (P101) respectively.
Wolf-Rainer Hamann
Gerhard Hensler (P100) The proportions of submitted proposals
Catherine Heymans (excluding Large Programmes) were
Peter Jonker (P100) 20.1%, 19.4%, 29.6% and 30.9% for A, B,
Kirsten Knudsen (P101) C and D categories, respectively. In terms
Badri Krishnan of time requested, the proportions were
Elina Lindfors 23.2%, 18.2%, 28.7% and 29.9%. This is
Sebastian Lopez in line with the slight shift towards stellar
Eduardo Martin (P100) science (categories C and D) as com-
Joanna Mikolajewska (P100) pared to extragalactic science (categories
Subhanjoy Mohanty A and B) that has been observed over
Goeran Oestlin (P100) the last few years. To rebalance the load
Elena Pian (P101) between the A and B panels, the defini-
Philipp Richter tions of their subcategories were updated
Roberto Saglia and deployed in Period 101.
Maurizio Salaris (P101)
The OPC categories are specified in
full at http://www.eso.org/sci/observing/
phase1/opc-categories.html.
In 2017, X-shooter, which is mounted
on Kueyen (UT2), maintained its position
as the VLT instrument with the largest
amount of requested observing time
(489 nights). It was followed by MUSE
(419 nights) on Melipal (UT4), and by
Members of the Observing Programmes Office pose
for a photo at ESO Headquarters.
FORS2 (376 nights) on Antu (UT1). Kueyen
(UT2) continues to be the most popular
UT, in terms of requested time (931 nights).
The telescope with the highest ratio of
requested to available time (8.38) is
­Melipal (UT4). The availability of UT4 in
Periods 100 and 101 was low because
of activities related to the AOF.
In 2017, demand for the new interfero-
metric instrument GRAVITY, which was
first offered in Period 99 with four UTs,
significantly increased. The allocation
was particularly large in Period 101,
which covers the periastron passage of
the star S2 around the Galactic Centre.
The OPC reviewed 13 open-time propos-
als for the VISTA survey telescope and
17 for the VST, of which 6 and 10 were
scheduled, respectively.
On La Silla, HARPS and EFOSC2 con­
tinued to be in high demand.
No application was received by ESO
within the framework of the continuing
agreement between ESO and ESA for a
joint telescope time allocation scheme for
coordinated observations with the VLT
and XMM-Newton. Time on both facilities
was granted to one joint proposal evalu-
ated by the XMM – Newton Observing
Time Allocation Committee.
ESO/P. Horálek
ESO Annual Report 2017 111
Targets of Opportunity
The number of Target of Opportunity pro-
posals submitted in 2017 was similar to
previous years. For Periods 100 and 101,
the OPC evaluated 35 and 42 proposals,
respectively, of which 18 and 22 were
scheduled, amounting to a total of about
457 hours. FORS2 and X-shooter were
the most requested instruments for Target
of Opportunity observations, with a total
of 429 requested hours. These two
instruments were allocated 59.5% of the
Target of Opportunity time. The Target of
Opportunity allocation at the two survey
telescopes for programmes dedicated to
the identification of the counterparts of
gravitational wave sources remained
­substantial (49 hours — 10.7%) and con-
tributed significantly to the follow-up of
the GW170817 event, for which time was
successfully invested both at Paranal
(VLT) and at La Silla (NTT).
Calibration Programmes
Calibration Programmes allow users to
complement the existing coverage of the
calibration of ESO instruments. Calibration
Programmes are evaluated in the main by
comparing the potential enhancement of
the outcome of future science that can
be expected from their execution with the
immediate return from science proposals
112 ESO Annual Report 2017
in the current period that are directly com-
peting for the same resources. In 2017
six Calibration Programmes were sub­
mitted (three each in Periods 100 and
101). Four proposals were recommended
for implementation by the OPC (two each
in Periods 100 and 101).
Large Programmes
Large Programmes are projects that
require a minimum of 100 hours of observ-
ing time and that have the potential to lead
to a major advance or breakthrough in the
relevant field of study. Large Programme
execution can be spread over several
observing periods with a maximum dura-
tion of four years for observations to be
carried out with the La  Silla telescopes,
and two years on the VLT/I and on APEX.
A total of 32 Large Programme proposals
were received in 2017, 16 each in Periods
100 and 101. Out of these, three pro-
grammes were GTO Large Programmes
from the Spectro-Polarimetric High-­
contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE)
and MUSE instrument consortia.
Following the OPC recommendations,
three new Large Programmes were
implemented in Period 100, and seven
in Period 101. The trend towards using
a large fraction of science time on the
La Silla telescopes for the execution of
Large Programmes, encouraged by
ESO and already embraced by the com-
munity in recent years, has continued.
The total allocations to new and ongoing
Large Programmes in Periods 100 and
101 at the 3.6-metre telescope and at
the NTT were 98.7 and 107.5 nights
respectively. This corresponds to 29.5%
and 33.5% of the available science time
at these two telescopes.
Public Spectroscopic Surveys
The two spectroscopic surveys, VANDELS
and LEGA-C (UT3+VIMOS) were com-
pleted in Period 100.
Director’s Discretionary Time
Proposals asking for Director’s Discre-
tionary Time (DDT) may be submitted
throughout the year for programmes that
present a level of urgency incompatible
with the regular proposal cycles handled
by the OPC. In 2017, the ESO user com-
munity submitted 109 DDT proposals,
requesting about 596 hours. After taking
advice from an internal committee of
ESO staff astronomers, the Director
­General approved 58 DDT proposals for
implementation, amounting to a total of
240 hours.
Users Committee
The Users Committee 2017
Chair Maria-Rosa Cioni
(Germany)
Austria Wolfgang Kausch
Belgium Olivier Absil (Vice-chair)
Czech Republic Michaela Kraus
Denmark Lise Bech Christensen
Finland Talvikki Hovatta
France Nicolas Bouché
Italy Maria Teresa Beltran
The Netherlands Karina Caputi
Poland Łukasz Wyrzykowski
Portugal David Sobral
Spain María Rosa Zapatero
Osorio
Sweden Sofia Ramstedt
Switzerland Miroslava Dessauges
United Kingdom Stephen Smartt
Chile Thomas Puzia
The UC advises the ESO Director General
on various operational aspects, such as
performance, s­ cientific access, opera-
tions and data management facilities, as
well as on services offered by ESO to its
users that are directly related to the LPO
and ALMA. The UC members include one
astronomer from each of the ESO Mem-
ber States and Chile; they are in charge
of channelling feedback from their nation-
al communities, communicating their
respective communities’ experiences of
using ESO facilities and formulating spe-
cific recommendations for improvements.
The UC held its 41st annual meeting
at ESO Headquarters in Garching on
8 – 9 May and a mid-term teleconference
on 17 November.
During its 41st meeting the UC was inter-
ested to hear results of an investigation
of technical downtime statistics from
Paranal, enquired about the various
aspects of data processing and delivery
of ALMA data, and encouraged ESO to
continue placing a high priority on the
development, support and improvement
of pipelines. A new way of interacting with
observers using eavesdropping — which
allows users to follow their observations
in real time — in combination with the
new web-based Phase 2 preparation and
visitor observing tools was showcased
by means of a live demonstration via a
connection with Paranal.
The UC expressed disappointment with
the long timeline for the development of
the new Phase 1 proposal submission
tool and recommended the acceleration
of its delivery in response to repeated
requests for improvements from the com-
munity. The reports from the working
groups on Science Data Management
and Time Allocation were presented. The
recommendations from the latter were
discussed in relation to the results from a
recent survey of non-publishing PIs. After
the meeting, in September, the UC deliv-
ered to ESO consolidated written feed-
back on the two Working Group reports.
While expressing overall support for the
recommendations, the UC also had some
reservations and expressed a degree of
disagreement with some of the Time Allo-
cation Working Group recommendations.
The second day of the UC annual meet-
ing focused on Multi-Object Spectros­
copy (MOS). Two expert users from the
community, Barbara Lanzoni (Italy) and
Christophe Adami (France) shared their
experiences with several instruments
(FLAMES, KMOS, FORS2 and VIMOS) all
of which have MOS capabilities that have
been crucial for their research. ESO pre-
sented the capabilities of current MOS
instruments and forthcoming plans for
4MOST and MOONS operations, as well
as the results from the MOS Working
Group led by Richard Ellis.
The UC conveyed a high level of satisfac-
tion overall within the community and the
meeting concluded with the presentation
of recommendations that were based in
part on feedback collected from the UC
poll. Progress on these recommendations
was further discussed at the mid-term
teleconference in November, in which the
Australian observer for 2018, Caroline
Foster, also participated.
Panorama showing the VISTA telescope in the fore-
ground; the VLT can be seen in a distance, to the left.
ESO Annual Report 2017 113
International Staff Association
The origin of a staff association repre-
senting International Staff Members is
embedded in the International Staff Rules
Chapter V II entitled “Relations with the
Personnel”. Article V II 1.02 in this chapter
simply states, “A Staff Association may
be established”. The primary function of
this staff association is defined in the pre-
ceding article, which states “Within the
framework of the present Rules, and
independently of the normal hierarchical
channels, the relations between the
Director General of the Organisation and
the members of the personnel shall be
either direct with the individual or on a
collective basis with the Staff Associations
as intermediaries”.
At the moment the International Staff
Association (ISA) is composed of two
International Staff Committees, one
­representing staff in Europe (ISCE) and
mainly located in Garching, and one
for staff based in Chile (ISCC). A very
large majority of the international staff —
approximately 432 in total in 2017 — are
paying members of the ISA; 426 mem-
bers were registered as of September
2017, of whom 343 are based in Europe
and 83 in Chile.
Based on these ESO Staff Rules, a further
definition of how relations between the
Director General and international staff
are structured is described in the ESO
Staff Regulations Chapter V II entitled
“Relations with the Members of Person-
nel”. An essential body for establishing
this relationship is introduced in this
chapter, the Standing Advisory Commit-
tee (STAC). In 2017, important progress
was made on renewing the role and func-
tioning of this advisory body. Besides
its participation in STAC, the ISA is repre-
sented at various other official entities,
including:
– Finance Committee (FC);
– Tripartite Group;
– Joint Advisory Appeals Board;
– Indefinite Appointment Advisory Board;
– Rehabilitation Board;
– Disciplinary Board;
– CERN Pension Fund.
However, the role of the ISA is broader
than that officially defined in the ESO
Staff Rules and Regulations. Additional
aims are mentioned in the ISA Statutes
114 ESO Annual Report 2017
Article 2:
a) To promote the unity and cooperation
between the various ESO establish-
ments for the benefit of the whole
organisation;
b) To ensure that the working conditions
of the staff are in accordance with the
ESO Combined Staff Rules and the
ESO Staff Regulations (SRR) and with
all other instructions applicable to the
staff, and to propose improvements to
the SRR;
c) To safeguard the rights and defend
the interests of all members of the
staff, especially as regards security of
employment;
d) To cooperate with the Director General
and his representatives in the improve-
ment of working conditions and, in this
connection, to inform the Director Gen-
eral of the views and wishes of the staff;
e) To strengthen the ties between the
v­arious nationalities represented in the
Organisation;
f) To set up any body and to provide
­services of any kind likely to promote
the welfare of the staff, including cul­
tural, social and sports activities;
g) To cooperate with the Director General
in promoting good relations with the
local population among whom mem-
bers of the staff and their families are
living.
Within the framework of the above aims
the ISA takes care, often with direct
help from individual staff members, of
organising regular social activities like the
children’s Christmas party and summer
party. Financial support is provided for
other social activities, like sports events.
Besides these group activities the ISA,
through the regional Staff Committees,
also provides support to individual staff
members, for example, if there are con-
flicts with the Organisation.
After an increasingly difficult period in
2016 and early 2017, resulting in the
absence of a Staff Committee, the ISA
General Assembly voted on 5 May 2017
to hold elections for ISA representatives
again. The underlying objective was to
have a new Staff Committee installed by
the time the new Director General took
up his position. These elections were
held in September in both Chile and
Garching and resulted in a fresh ISC in
each region. Staff transmitted a clear
message, expressed by a voter participa-
tion of 86% (88% for ISCE and 78% for
ISCC), giving the ISC a strong mandate to
represent staff. On that same occasion
staff recommended the following to the
elected Staff Committee: to re-establish
a good working relationship with the
Director General elect and senior man-
agement, and to conclude the Recogni-
tion Agreement — based on concertation
(which relies on open dialogue and dis-
cussion) — and establish STAC Rules of
Procedure defining guidelines for this
implementation.
In early October, the new ISC met the
new Director General for the first time
and agreed to collaborate on the afore-
mentioned recommendations at the
highest priority. As a result of this the
Recognition Agreement was signed by
the Director General and the president
of the ISA on 5 December 2017. The
­corresponding STAC Rules of Procedure
were drafted and submitted to STAC
for review at their next meeting, to be
held in January 2018.
Although the Director General and the
ISC expressed an intention to resume a
normal working relationship in 2017, it
was not feasible to address various out-
standing proposals by the STAC immedi-
ately because of time constraints. The
process involves submitting these pro-
posals to the Director General, obtaining
recommendations from the FC and final
approval by Council. However, the ISC is
strongly committed to addressing these
proposals in 2018 following the principle
of concertation. The ISC aims for com-
petitive working conditions for all staff
to meet the challenges within the Organi-
sation. It considers trust, solidarity,
accountability, transparency and respon-
sibility key elements to have empowered
and engaged staff at ESO. The staff
­committee strives for a collaborative rela-
tionship with the Director General and
his team to accomplish this vision. The
ISA hopes that ESO’s governing bodies,
the FC and Council support the agreed
concertation process, giving a basis for
a fair, con­temporary governance of the
relations between the Director General
and staff.
 Local Staff Representatives
The first steps towards staff representa-
tion were in the early days of ESO in
Chile, when a group of Local Staff Mem-
bers created a Staff Association called
“Asociación Única del Personal Local”
(AUPL). This association laid the founda-
tion of the relationship between ESO
and its Local Staff Members. In January
1998, the so-called “Book 1” came into
force and gave the representation of the
Local Staff Members the opportunity to
have a new body as a legal and recog-
nised union. The current regulations for
local staff in Chile were released and
implemented in April 2002.
Since November 2016, there have been
two unions, the “Sindicato del Personal
Local del Observatorio La Silla–ESO” and
the “Sindicato de Técnicos y Profesionales
del Personal Local del Observatorio
­Paranal–ESO”. Additionally, two staff
­delegates represent the “Group of Non-
Unionized Local Staff Members”. Here
is some more information about each of
these.
Sindicato del Personal Local del
­Observatorio La Silla-ESO
The old AUPL, which had long repre­
sented mostly local staff at the La Silla
Observatory, was succeeded by this
organisation. It was established in Sep-
tember 2002, and in 2017, this union
ePOD/J. P. Astorga
had 37 members across ESO, 10 of
whom were at the La Silla Observatory,
25 at the Paranal Observatory, and one
each at APEX and at Vitacura. The new
representatives of the union are all tele-
scope operators at Paranal and were
elected in August 2017. They are Carlos
La Fuente (President); Marcelo Lopez
(Secretary); Rodrigo Romero (Treasurer).
Sindicato de Técnicos y Profesionales
del Personal Local del Observatorio
Paranal–ESO
This union was founded in October 2002.
In 2017, they had 69 members across
ESO, 53 of whom were at the Paranal
Observatory, 10 at APEX, and 6 in V­ itacura.
The director of the union is F
­ ernando
­Salgado (electronics engineer at Paranal),
the secretary is Nicolas Slusarenko (soft-
ware engineer at Paranal) and the treas-
urer is Alex Correa (telescope operator at
Paranal).
Group of Non-Unionized Local Staff
Members
This consists of 45 Local Staff Members.
The two staff delegates are Diego
Rioseco (legal advisor at Vitacura) and
Marcus Pavez (system administrator at
Paranal).
The delegates from the three groups
­listed here represent their members
through regular communication with the
ESO management. They are all actively
participating in the review of the Regula-
tions for Local Staff (RPL) in Chile, a
­process that started in 2015. The final
draft will be presented in 2018 and
­submitted to the Chilean government.
A more detailed list of their activities in
2017 is provided below.
List of activities
– A contract for health insurance for
union members and their families was
signed with the Fundación Arturo López
Pérez, which fights against cancer.
– Work is in progress regarding points
from the 2016 bargaining process and
involves several working groups related
to various issues, for example, working
clothes, night work, emergency trans-
portation and medical assistance.
– Meetings with the new Director of
Administration and the new Director
General.
– Active participation in the Federation
of Astronomical Observatories in
Chile (Federación de Observatorios
Astronómicos de Chile, FOACH).
­Fernando Salgado was elected
­Secretary of the board.
– Many staff members also appreciated
the chance to meet the President of
Chile, Michelle Bachelet, during her visit
to Paranal in May 2017.
Paranal Union leaders pose with President Bachelet,
after presenting her with a vase containing soil
­s amples from the five ESO sites, during the First
Stone event in the Paranal Residencia.
ESO Annual Report 2017 115
Diversity
It is one of ESO’s objectives to advance
diversity and inclusion at all levels within
the Organisation by fostering a culture
and atmosphere of mutual respect and
promoting outstanding employees from
all backgrounds, genders and cultures.
In 2017, the Director General set up an
internal committee, the Diversity and
Inclusion Committee, to implement goals,
policies and good practice around these
issues. The committee integrates efforts
from all parts of ESO and is responsible
for developing and supporting the imple-
mentation of a diversity and inclusion
plan around three pillars: recruitment and
career development; creating a welcom-
ing environment and culture; and working
conditions.
116 ESO Annual Report 2017
Gender is an immediate focus of the
committee, as the female representation
in STEM jobs — in particular in engineer-
ing — remains very low. Priorities for
the committee include raising the aware-
ness of the importance of inclusion to
achieve diversity as well as of the impact
of unconscious bias on the workplace.
In 2017, guidelines for the usage of gen-
der inclusive pronouns were prepared,
videos on unconscious bias to be used
as training for selection boards were
­chosen, and talks on topics related to
diversity and inclusion were planned for
the following year. In addition, members
of the committee continued to be active
in a variety of networks and international
working groups that promote diversity,
gender equality, professional ethics and
inclusivity: for example, Girls’ Day (p. 92),
the European Commission-funded
­GENERA project, and the IAU working
group Women in Astronomy.
In January, ESO, CERN and NordForsk
organised a “Gender in Physics Day” to
discuss the main challenges that intra-
governmental organisations face in terms
of gender equality and diversity. The one-
day meeting was attended by all eight
EIROforum organisations. One of its main
outcomes was the start of an ad hoc
Working Group on diversity and inclusive-
ness, whose main objectives are to pro-
vide a platform for sharing practices and
benchmarking data, to combine forces in
raising awareness within the organisations
and prioritise key actions on these topics.
ESO Code of Conduct for Workshops
and Conferences
ESO has a number of policies that define
the ethical and behavioural standards
expected of ESO staff. Several avenues
are available to staff members, through
which they can report problems related
to violations of these policies. For confi-
dential enquiries and complaints, a staff
member can approach any one of the
external and internal harassment contact
persons and/or HR harassment advisors
in Germany and Chile, each of whom is
specially trained to support staff seeking
help on ESO’s policies and to advise
them on their options.
In recent years the largest astronomical
body, the IAU, along with every other
major astronomical society, has issued
recommendations for scientific meetings.
Central to these recommendations is that
a code of conduct should be published
prominently at every meeting as every
participant bears a responsibility to create
a welcoming environment at the meeting.
At the same time, organisers are expect-
ed to develop procedures to handle any
violations of these codes of conduct. In
2017, in order to remain in line with current
best practice and to protect all partici-
pants at ESO workshops and conferences
(and not just ESO staff members), ESO
developed a new code of conduct to
apply to the many workshops and confer-
ences held on ESO premises.
This code of conduct was devised using
existing ESO policies, recommendations
from the IAU and other societies, and
guidelines developed for other recent
astronomical workshops. It was finalised
with input from ESO staff, and with the
involvement of ESO’s harassment advisors
and harassment contact persons. Follow-
ing a discussion by the Directors Team
and approval by the Director General, the
code of conduct will apply to ESO work-
shops and conferences in 2018. ESO will
continue to follow developments across
the STEM community so that it is well
placed to update the code of conduct
and associated procedures and stay in
line with best practice.
ESO conferences and workshops attract scientists
of all ages and from all over the world as seen
in this photo of the participants in the workshop
“The Impact of Binaries on Stellar Evolution”,
which took place at the ESO Headquarters from
3–7 July 2017.
ESO Annual Report 2017 117
Calendar of Events

January

ESO signs agreement with Breakthrough

Initiatives to conduct a search for planets
in the nearby star system, Alpha Centauri.
ESO Headquarters, 9 January.

Four contracts signed for major compo-

nents of ESO’s ELT including the casting
of the secondary and tertiary mirrors,
and the supply of mirror cells and edge
sensors. ESO Headquarters, 18 January.

ESO Calibration Workshop “The second-

generation VLT instruments and friends”. Above: The attendees
at the 2017 Calibration
ESO Vitacura, 16–19 January.
Workshop in the garden
at ESO Vitacura.

February

ESO Workshop “Getting ready for ALMA

Band 5 — Synergy with APEX/SEPIA”.
ESO Headquarters, 1–3 February.

March

ESO Workshop “Stellar populations in

stellar clusters and dwarf galaxies — new
astronomical and astrophysical challeng-
Left: Participants in the
es”. ESO Vitacura, 2–3 March. VLTI Community Days

ESO Workshop “Star formation from
Cores to Clusters”. ESO Vitacura,
6–9 March.
VLTI Community Days. ESO Headquar-
ters, 6–10 March.
Annual Overview (internal review),
ESO: all sites, 13–15 March.
May ELT tertiary mirror blank successfully cast
by Schott, Mainz, Germany, 22 May.
148th FC meeting. ESO Headquarters,
3–4 May. First Stone ceremony with Chilean
­President Michelle Bachelet and over
41st UC meeting. ESO Headquarters, 200 distinguished guests, including
9–10 May. high-level government and academic
­representatives, as well as twelve
100th OPC meeting. Abbazia Spineto, ­ambassadors from ESO Member States,
Italy, 16–18 May. 26 May.

April
ESO/A. Kaufer

ALMA Board meeting. ALMA Santiago

Central Office, 19–21 April.

89th STC meeting. ESO Headquarters,

23–24 April. The ALMA Residencia at
the ALMA Operations
ALMA Residencia handed over to the Support Facility was
handed over to the Joint
Joint ALMA Observatory. ALMA Opera- ALMA Observatory.
tions Support Facility, Chile, 25 April. Here, the symbolic key
to the building is being
Girls’ Day — part of a German nationwide handed to the ALMA
Director, Pierre Cox (left)
event. ESO Headquarters, 27 April. by ESO’s Director
­G eneral, Tim de Zeeuw
(right).

118 ESO Annual Report 2017

Contracts signed for the primary mirror of On 1 September 2017,

ESO/M. Zamani
Xavier Barcons became
the ELT. ESO Headquarters, 30 May.
ESO’s eighth Director
General.
142nd Council meeting. ESO Headquar-
ters, 31 May–1 June.

June

European Week of Astronomy and Space

Science. Charles University, Czech
Republic 26–30 June.

European Week of Astronomy and Space

Science Special Session “The European
ELT — Project status and plans for early 149th extraordinary FC meeting. ESO ESO Workshop “Submillimetre/millimetre/
science”. Charles University, Czech Headquarters, 19 September. centimetre QUESO 2017”. ESO Head-
Republic, 29 June. quarters, 25–27 October.

October ESO telescopes join effort to characterise

July
ESO Workshop “Impact of Binaries on
Stellar Evolution”. ESO Headquarters,
3–7 July.
Australia enters strategic partnership with
ESO. Canberra, 11 July.
ESO Workshop “Early Stages of Galaxy
Cluster Formation 2017”. ESO Headquar-
ters, 17–21 July.
ESO and Excellence Cluster Workshop
“Galaxy Ecosystem — Flow of baryons
through galaxies”. ESO Headquarters,
24–28 July.
August
First light with MUSE using the newly
commissioned Adaptive Optics Facility.
Paranal, 2 August.
ESO/P. Horálek
A press event was held to announce
ESO’s involvement in the detection
and characterisation of the visible coun-
terpart to the gravitational wave source,
GW170817 for the first time and detect
the first kilonova. ESO Headquarters,
16 October.
Joint ESO/ESA Workshop 2017 “Working
together in support of science”. European
Space Astronomy Centre, Madrid, Spain,
17–20 October.
ESO Open House Day 2017 on Saturday
21 October, as part of a day of public
access to the Garching research campus.
90th STC meeting. ESO Headquarters,
24–25 October.
the first interstellar asteroid to be detected.
November
150th FC meeting. ESO Headquarters,
6–7 November.
ALMA Board meeting. ALMA Santiago
Central Office, 15–17 November
101st OPC meeting. Munich,
14–16 November.
December
145th Council meeting. ESO Headquar-
ters, 6–7 December.
First light for ESPRESSO. Paranal Obser-
vatory, 6 December.

ELT secondary mirror blank cast by

Schott, Mainz, Germany, 24 August.

ESO Workshop “Reaching New Heights

in Astronomy: Celebrating ESO’s achieve- ESO Open House Day
ments and perspectives from 10 years of 2017. The programme
Tim de Zeeuw as Director General”. ESO included live experi-
ments (like the comet-
Headquarters, 28–30 August. making experiment in
this photo), guided tours,
an exhibition on the ESO
September observatories, talks
from ESO scientists, and
a live connection to the
Xavier Barcons starts as ESO Director ESO observatories in
General. Chile.

ESO Annual Report 2017 119

A. Duro/ESO

120 ESO Annual Report 2017

This picture was taken at the northern tip of the
Salar de Atacama — the largest salt flat in Chile.
The salt flat is home to two similar freshwater
lagoons that lie very close together: the Ojos del
Salar, which translates to “Eyes of the Salt Pan”.

ESO Annual Report 2017 121

Glossary of Acronyms
4LGSF 4 Laser Guide Star Facility (VLT)
4MOST 4-metre Multi-Object
Spectroscopic Telescope (VISTA)
A&A Journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics
A&ARv Journal, Astronomy and
Astrophysics Review
ADC Atmospheric Dispersion
Compensator
AGN Active Galactic Nucleus
AJ Journal, Astronomical Journal
ALMA Atacama Large Millimeter/
submillimeter Array
AMBER Astronomical Multi-BEam
combineR (VLTI instrument)
AN Journal, Astronomische
Nachrichten
Antu VLT Unit Telescope 1
AOF Adaptive Optics Facility
AOS Array Operations Site (ALMA)
APEX Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment
AIV Assembly, integration and
verification process
ApJ Journal, Astrophysical Journal
ApJS Journal, Astrophysical Journal
Supplement Series
ARA&A Journal, Annual Reviews of
Astronomy & Astrophysics
ARC ALMA Regional Centre
ArTéMiS Architectures de bolometres pour
des Télescopes a grand champ de
vue dans le domaine sub-
Millimetrique au Sol (APEX)
ARTIST Adaptable Radiative Transfer
Innovations for Submillimetre
Telescopes
ASTRONET EU scheme for astronomy
cooperation and coordination at
national or regional level in the
Member States and Associated
States
AT Auxiliary Telescope for the VLTI
ATT ALMA Technical Team
au Astronomical unit (Earth – Sun
distance)
AUI Association of Universities Inc.
BlackGEM Telescope array searching for
optical counterparts of
gravitational wave sources
CAD computer-aided design
CASA Common Astronomy Software
Applications (ALMA)
CCD Charge Coupled Device
CERN European Organization for Nuclear
Research
CIAO Coudé Infrared Adaptive Optics
system (VLT)
CMOS Complementary metal oxide
semiconductor
122 ESO Annual Report 2017
CO Carbon monoxide
CONICA High-resolution near-infrared
camera (VLT, NACO)
CPDS Cartridge Power Distribution
System
CRIRES Cryogenic InfraRed Echelle
Spectrometer (VLT)
CRIRES+ Planned upgrade to CRIRES
CTA Cherenkov Telescope Array
DG Director General
DSC Directorate for Science
DSM Deformable secondary mirror
EASC European ALMA Support Centre
ELT Extremely Large Telescope
EFOSC2 ESO Faint Object Spectrograph
and Camera 2 (NTT)
EIROforum Organisation consisting of the
eight scientific European
international organisations devoted
to fostering mutual activities
EMAC ELT Management Advisory
Committee
EM&P Journal, Earth, Moon, and Planets
ePOD education and Public Outreach
Department
ERIS Enhanced Resolution Imager and
Spectrograph (VLT)
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
ESA European Space Agency
ESAC European Science Advisory
Committee (for ALMA)
ESC ELT Subcommittee
ESO European Organisation for
Astronomical Research in the
Southern Hemisphere
ESON ESO Science Outreach Network
ESPRESSO Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky
Exoplanet and Stable
Spectroscopic Observations (VLT)
ESRF European Synchrotron Radiation
Facility
EU European Union
EWASS European Week of Astronomy and
Space Science
ExA Journal, Experimental Astronomy
ExTrA Exoplanets in Transits and their
Atmospheres (hosted telescopes,
La Silla)
FDR Final Design Review
FIAT Facility for Infrared Array Testing
FLAMES Fibre Large Array Multi Element
Spectrograph (VLT)
FORS2 FOcal Reducer/low dispersion
Spectrograph 2 (VLT)
GALACSI Ground Atmospheric Layer
Adaptive optiCs for Spectroscopic
Imaging (AOF)
GARD Group for Advanced Receiver
Development (Sweden)
GmbH Gesellschaft mit beschränkter
Haftung, German limited liability
company
GRAAL GRound-layer Adaptive optics
Assisted by Lasers (AOF)
GRAVITY AO assisted, two-object, multiple
beam-combiner (VLTI)
GTO Guaranteed Time Observing
GuideCamTool Unified target acquisition
preparation tool for all ESO
instruments
HARMONI High Angular Resolution
Monolithic Optical and Near-
infrared Integral-field spectrograph
(ELT)
HARPS High Accuracy Radial velocity
Planetary Searcher (3.6-metre)
HAWK-I High Acuity Wide field K-band
Imager (VLT)
HIRES Proposed ELT high-resolution
spectrograph
HR Human Resources
HST NASA/ESA Hubble Space
Telescope
IAC Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
IAU International Astronomical Union
Icar Icarus, Journal, Planetary science
IET Integrated Engineering Team
(ALMA)
INAF Italian National Institute for
Astrophysics
IPAG Institut de Planétologie et
d’Astrophysique de Grenoble
ISAAC Infrared Spectrometer And Array
Camera (VLT)
IT Information Technology
JAO Joint ALMA Observatory
JIRA Proprietary issue tracking product
KMOS 
K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph
(VLT)
Kueyen VLT Unit Telescope 2
LABOCA Large APEX BOlometer CAmera
LEGA-C Large Early Galaxy Census
LFC Laser Frequency Comb
LGSF Laser Guide Star Facility (VLT)
LIGO Laser Interferometer Gravitational-
Wave Observatory
LPO La Silla P
­ aranal Observatory
LSP La Silla P
­ aranal Subcommittee
LTAO Laser tomography adaptive optics
M# Mirror #
MACAO Multiple Application Curvature
Adaptive Optics
MAORY Multi-conjugate Adaptive Optics
RelaY (ELT)
MASCARA Multisite All Sky CAmeRA (La Silla)
MATISSE Multi AperTure mid-Infrared
SpectroScopic Experiment (VLTI)
Melipal VLT Unit Telescope 3
METIS Mid-infrared ELT Imager and
Spectrograph (ELT)
MICADO Multi-AO Imaging CAmera for
Deep Observations (ELT)
MIDI Mid-infrared Interferometric
Instrument (VLTI)
MNRAS Journal, Monthly Notices of the
Royal Astronomical Society
MOONS Multi Object Optical and Near-
infrared Spectrograph (VLT third
generation)
MOS Proposed multi-object
spectrograph (ELT)
MOSAIC Multi-object spectrograph (ELT)
MPE Max Planck Institute for
Extraterrestrial Physics
MPG Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
MPIfR Max Planck Institute for Radio
Astronomy
MUSE Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer
(VLT)
NACO NAOS-CONICA (VLT)
NAOJ National Astronomical Observatory
of Japan
NAOMI Adaptive optics system for the ATs
(VLTI)
OSO Onsala Space Observatory
P# Observing Period
P&SS Journal, Planetary and Space
Science
PAE Provisional Acceptance Europe
PASJ Journal, Publications of the
Astronomical Society of Japan
PASP Journal, Publications of the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
PDR Preliminary Design Review
PESSTO Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey
of Transient Objects
PFS Pre-focal station (ELT)
PhysRevLett Journal, Physical Review Letters
PI Principal Investigator
PI230 230 GHz receiver for APEX
PIONIER Precision Integrated Optics Near-
infrared Imaging ExpeRiment
(VLTI)
REM Rapid Eye Mount telescope
(La Silla)
SAESA Chilean Electrical company
Science Journal
SEPIA Swedish ESO PI receiver for APEX
SHFI Swedish Heterodyne Facility
Instrument
SINFONI Spectrograph for INtegral Field
Observations in the Near Infrared
(VLT)
VANDELS VIMOS spectroscopic survey in
the UKIDSS Ultra Deep survey field
and the Chandra Deep Field South
(CANDELS fields)
VDL Van Der Leegte Groop, the
Netherlands
VIMOS VIsible Multi-Object Spectrograph
(VLT)
VISIR VLT Imager and Spectrometer for
mid-InfraRed
VISTA Visible and Infrared Survey
Telescope for Astronomy
VLBI Very Long Baseline Interferometry
VLT Very Large Telescope
VLTI Very Large Telescope
Interferometer
vOT Visitor Mode Observing Tool
VST VLT Survey Telescope
VVVX ESO Public Survey VISTA Variables
in the Vía Láctea — extended
WFI Wide Field Imager (MPG/ESO
2.2metre telescope)
XFEL European X-ray free-electron laser
XMM-Newton X-ray Multi-Mirror satellite (ESA)
X-shooter Wideband ultraviolet-infrared
spectrograph (VLT)
Yepun VLT Unit Telescope 4
μm Micrometre

NAOS Nasmyth Adaptive Optics System SOFI Son OF Isaac (NTT)

(VLT) SOXS Son Of X-Shooter (NTT)
NASA National Aeronautics and Space SPECULOOS Search for habitable Planets
Administration EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars
Nature Journal (­Paranal)

NewA Journal, New Astronomy SPHERE Spectro-Polarimetric High-

NewAR Journal, New Astronomy Review
NGC New General Catalogue
NGTS Next-Generation Transit Survey
(­Paranal)
NIRPS Near Infra Red Planet Searcher
(3.6-metre)
NIX Infrared imager (VLT)
NOVA The Netherlands Research School
for Astronomy (Nederlandse
Onderzoekschool voor
Astronomie)
NRAO National Radio Astronomy
Observatory
NSF National Science Foundation (US)
NTT New Technology Telescope
(La Silla)
ODG Office of the Director General
OmegaCAM Wide-field camera (VST)
contrast Exoplanet REsearch
instrument (VLT)
SPIFFI SPectrometer for Infrared Faint
Field Imaging (SINFONI, VLT)
STC Scientific Technical Committee
STEM Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics
STFC UK Science and Technology
Facilities Council
TAROT-S Télescopes à Action Rapide
pour les Objets Transitoires South
(La Silla)
telbib ESO Library telescope
bibliography database
TRAPPIST TRAnsiting Planets and
PlanetesImals Small Telescope
(La Silla)
ULTRACAM Highspeed camera (VLT UT3:
P74 – 79; NTT: P85 – 87)

OPC Observing Programmes UT VLT Unit Telescopes 1– 4: Antu,

Committee Kueyen, Melipal and Yepun

OSF ALMA Operations Support Facility UVES UltraViolet-Visual Echelle

Spectrograph (VLT)

ESO Annual Report 2017 123

ESO Europe Cover: These four lasers form a key part of the
Adaptive Optics Facility on the Very Large Telescope,
which is designed to correct for the effects of atmos-
Headquarters pheric turbulence. Each of these powerful lasers
Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße 2 creates a synthetic star by illuminating sodium atoms
85748 G
­ arching bei München located at an altitude of over 90 km. The Adaptive
Optics Facility was commissioned in 2016 and 2017
Germany
and is already producing stunning observations
Phone +49 89 320 060 of a range of astronomical objects, ranging from
Fax +49 89 320 2362 planetary ­n ebulae to galaxy clusters.
information@eso.org Credit: ESO/G. Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com)
www.eso.org

ESO Chile

ESO Vitacura Guesthouse

Alonso de Córdova 3107
Vitacura
Casilla 19001
Santiago de Chile
Chile
Phone +56 2 2463 3000
Fax +56 2 2463 3101
La Silla ­­Paranal Observatory
La Silla Site
IV Región
Chile
Phone +56 2 2464 4100
Fax +56 2 2464 4101
La Silla ­­Paranal Observatory
­­Paranal Site
II Región
Chile
Phone +56 55 2435 100
Fax +56 55 2435 101
APEX Séquitor Base
Ayllo de Séquitor, Parcela 85
San Pedro de Atacama
II Región
Chile
Phone +56 55 2448 200 Ext. 448
Fax +56 55 2448 221
Rey Gustavo Adolfo No. 4634
Las Condes
Santiago
Chile
Phone +56 2 2208 4254
Fax +56 2 2228 9333
ESO Antofagasta Office
Avenida Balmaceda 2536
Office 504
Edificio “Don Guillermo”
Antofagasta
Chile
Phone +56 55 2260 032
Fax +56 55 2260 081
ESO is a partner in the international
ALMA project
ALMA Santiago Central Offices
Alonso de Córdova 3107
Vitacura
Casilla 763 0355
Santiago
Chile
Phone +56 2 2467 6100
Fax +56 2 2467 6101

APEX Chajnantor
­­ Site ALMA Operations Support Facility
II Región Kilómetro 121
Chile Carretera CH 23 All images are courtesy of ESO unless
Phone +56 55 2448 299 San Pedro de Atacama otherwise indicated.
Chile
ESO La Serena Office Phone +56 2 2467 6416 Edited by the Office of the Director General.
Avenida Panorámica No. 4461
Sector Aeroparque La Florida ALMA Array Operations Site Produced by the education and Public
Casilla 567 II Región Outreach Department.
La Serena Chile
Chile ESO 2018
Phone +56 51 2272 601 ISSN 0531-4496
Fax +56 51 215 175 DOI: 10.18727/docs/2
www.eso.org